An Eventful Final Semester in CFS

Aah, the memories of Semester 1, 2008/2009 in CFS IIUM, Nilai. I had the time of my (last teenage) life during this whole semester--great roommates, cool classmates, wacky lecturers, lovely CFS mates and uh, nice Nilai people? Oho, some of them are really nice *evil grin*. Besides spending gruelling hours on assignments and projects, I, of course, had some all-round quality time with people around me. So let's break it down, peeps!

1) Roommates.

My room held 20 people in one not-so-spacious uh, space. And each and every one of them had they own special traits. I was lucky to have the same roommates since I got to CFS, so basically this sem was gettin' to know the rest of the girls (been with them since short sem before but hadn't enough time to bond)--which turned out to be quite a colourful bunch. Few good of them were TLCs--Tudung Labuh Clan but no, they were definitely NOT under the influence of the clan. They were even sicker than I am, trust me, and amusingly more knowledgeable in ahem, 18SX topics.

But those aside, they enriched my understanding on religious matters, introducing me to a different light I've never seen before. It was a fresh dose of enlightenment you might say, by my very own peers. Last few months ago, it was probably the most fulfilled Ramadhan I ever felt and done as I prayed, broke fast, read the Quran and prayed Terawih almost every night with them.

Words couldn’t even do justice of how grateful, how lucky I was. Still am.

I will miss utmost the times of those memoriable hangouts with the girls: the lunch and teh ais sessions, the 5-hour-long chats till 4 a.m., the chillin' sessions after dinner, the group eat-ins and eat-outs, the weekly group shoppings, the group dvd nights, the gossip catch-ups during lunch break/dinner/studying, the waiting chats during laundry, the weekly Friday prayers group lunch + skodeng, the jokes during supper, the riots in the bathroom(!), the hilarious stuff happening in those ungodly hours of the morning, the keropok leko or ice cream sessions after class, the crazy chats on the benches in front of the male dorm, the teasings, the infonews, those funny moments, side-splitting jokes, the laughter...

Now, on a daily basis however, we non-tudung labuh people were verbally, mentally AND physically(!) harassed by a very mischievous Miss Hyde, a TL-minus-the-C. On a normal, non-hyper day, she would hug me and would not let go until I confess my bleurghlovebarff to this particular guy which leads us to...

2) Classmates.

I had 15 or so girlmates and 5 guymates. Five was a great achievement in my record, as in previous semesters the most guys I had in classes were three. I had the best, hilarious time working on my final History project with my group mates--which we did a drama, and in triumph we nailed the subject! It's invisible here, but my inner self is still cartwheeling around in euphoria.

There was this guy I particularly had my eye on and this other particular guy who my girls just couldn't stop pairing me up with (waaaay much more than BT). It gotten to such a revolting point that they come up with a ghastly honeymoon story AND, naming triplets in my imaginary womb with our names combined AND, patting my stomach every other moment to confirm that they were godmothers AND, commenting on taking care of myself every time I sat brutally or lay on my stomach AND, the perpetual questioning of how my imaginary babies were doing. There are more ANDs, but these are the top five MOST repulsive.

Miraculously, I’m still a survivor.

3) Lecturers.

Thankfully I got my fave lecturer, the cool cat Sir M.! Still-wondering-why-he-was-the-way-he-was, Sir A. for History, which I'm more than thankful for giving us top grades! Sean teased me with him often *dies, reincarnated and dies again* and even Laling, my close classmate, but Laling still took a pity on me. And I don't want to even think about it.

I got a suave, romantically(!) soft-spoken, 60-over of age lecturer, who loved flirting with the girls with his wise yet witty charm and teased the guys with back-clapping that so often ensued. The incredible fact that he also kept his handphone inside his perfectly-ironed trousers traumatised us to this very day.

Two other female lecturers were just awesome (this is surprising with my typical tinge of dislike towards female lecturers): one was a collected fashionista who wore Clarks shoes I always gazed upon; another had a sarcastic, in-your-face attitude and wit to match, with interesting teaching techniques. This was an example of a woman whose personality is much bigger than she is (she was vertically challenged). And she was just lovely as in her way with words that made you think of things not-so-slightly different in perspective. Lucky husband that she has, though she reminded us constantly that she didn't really love him. Romantic fluff.

4) CFS mates

I got random acquaintances around CFS, and this sem I got to know juniors, baby! Introducing Mr. S, who was wheelchair-bound and adorably cute when Sean and I called him up one night (using BT's num, oops!) and said to him that we think he's cute! Aww we totally psyched into a teenybopper mode at that time, on the stairway of the dorm--yet a strategic place to make calls without roommates' harassments. We and O, went out to dinner with him and broke fast together with BT(!) and another junior who was blind in one eye. A funny bunch if one were to look at us, but that night we had a blast and chatted all the way till...curfew time.

Okay, so what's the news with BT? Actually he ain't BT no more coz he found his way into wearing dark denims, man. Like whoa. It was a shock for us, yes, but I guess some juniors had a man-to-man fashion sense talk with him? He looked awfully lot better, I admit lah. But Sean would insist that the initials BT stays, so stay it will be.

We happened to know another junior, fondly called 'Quasi' from Quasimodo of 'The Hunchback of Notre Dame'. Another one of Sean's brainchild (mean as she is), which would stay for good as well even though we knew his real name. But he has a hot body. And that hot body we would skodeng (peep, check out) during Friday prayers within the dark confines of our study room. Man, I'm gonna miss those skodeng sessions.

Still hangin'? 5) Nilai people

I am not a paedophile. I was though, in school, but it faded through time and age. Funny story. Didn't we all have our quirky phase in high school? Anyway, I happened to stumble across a very handsome boy during my first sem in CFS, and he was selling banana fritters. Sean naturally dared me to ask his number or she would do something rancid that I forgotten about; I asked and he bashfully (aaawwww) submitted gave. I could still remember how idiotic my smile was when he did. Later I found out he was 16. Damn.

Good to know huh?

Store owners around our campus were nice people though most of them were not Nilaians. There was this friendly Pak Sheikh who owned a laundry/convenience shop; the outgoing Chinese old man from the Chinese convenience store and his sons, one who would give us girls rides to Giant. Nice, polite people. With this came Malay girls who couldn’t resist the flirting and sweet talks. Yet one could see they enjoyed themselves along.

The Makcik and her café crew below my dorm were so used to handling most girls of block A, they threw each other loud wit and louder remarks. Those van stall owners who sold drinks and light snacks during Friday prayers—they were nice. And who could forget the nice family who sold hot foods and their famous crunchy keropok leko and pisang goreng every evening at their van stall? Plus that good-looking keropok leko guy exchanging awkward, cute moments with Sean, made it even satisfying to the last crisp.

6) Finale

Not forgetting and would be treasured in memory, our hangout spots around Nilai: the glorious Nilai Square, a place where one could shop with little money (except selective clothes and textiles); BBN café, the quite distanced joint from campus which offered open dining amid off-tune karaoke and dim lighting—great for lazy dinner dates; As-Salaam, the mamak place to be when you crave for a chicken chop; Mc Donald’s; the ever favourite for group-bonding and dating sessions; lastly, the beloved Giant hypermarket. To us, it held the magnificent status of “Nilai’s KLCC”, quoting from Miss Hyde.

All of these above makes up a truly wonderful experience of my last stay in CFS, IIUM Nilai, which will be my very firm and trusty cushion when I catapult to IIUM main campus in Gombak this December 16^th. And life dutifully ensues.

PS: My very first extremely long entry. *bows* Thank you, my, what lovely flowers. Thank you.

PSS: Happy Raya Hajj! I'm off to Alor Star this weekend! =3

PSSS: I edited some stuff coz few memories hit, causing reflexes to add more details to this post. So don't raise that eyebrow if you notice extra random thingies here and there.