DEGREE JUNIOR

Assalamualaikum! I hope those who are reading this are healthy, fine and are STAYING AT HOME. Today marks the 35^th day of Movement Control Order or abbreviately known as MCO. So far, I’ve done nothing productive until today when I decided to write a blog post which I’ve been delaying on. I should use the opportunity I have during this semi-lockdown period before online class starts soon. Yucks!

In this post, I want to share my degree life, from the orientation day until now. From my previous post, I’ve mentioned that I enrolled into Universiti Putra Malaysia furthering my study in Bachelor of Chemistry. So far, it has been a fun one and quite challenging, of course. I am now in my Semester 2 and in balance of six more semesters. Such a long way to go. I’ll try my best to cramp all those 14 weeks of Semester 1 in this post box.

ORIENTATION WEEK

I hate this week. Such an exhausting week, I would say. During the university orientation week, we had talks at Dewan Besar and had to walk back and forth from college. We had faculty briefings and were introduced to the Dean of Faculty, lecturers, mentors and courses that we have to register. At night, we had few talks and briefings at the college as well. And then we had to practice college cheers for the Intercollege Cheer Competition held at the end of the orientation week. Sleeping at two or three in the morning and waking up at 6 am was a routine for the whole week. In between that, I was shortlisted for a talent audition to find participants for Malam Tunas Budaya. They auditioned me for singing, props and dancing (ugh so embarrassing). In the end, tak dapat pun hahaha ☹. There was this one night when the seniors ragged us until 2 o’clock in the morning. I was so mad because the morning before, we had treasure hunt activity so it was very tiring and all I wanted was to sleep because the first lecture starts tomorrow. Ughhh.

During the college orientation or known as US KTDI which lasted for a week (at least for me), we were divided into groups of combined college floors. I was in Gabungan Mokhtar Dahari. So, every night we had to practice for a skit competition. Not just that, we also had to compete in sports and I competed for squash; a sport which I had no idea how to play it but I volunteered anyway (for merits hehe). Through all of the college activities, I made new friends and had quite fun times actually.

CHAPTER STUDENT AMBASSADOR

An ambassador? I couldn’t believe that I would involve myself in clubs, what more becoming an ambassador. How did I join the club? During the orientation week, there were booths opened to introduced to the new students about the clubs in the university. So, I randomly registered my name under Chapter Student Ambassador and was shortlisted for the interview. This club or shortly known as CSA is supervised under Alumni Centre UPM. Basically, the ambassadors are students who represents the alumni centre and are actively involve in the activities held. As for example, I joined a camp called Fraternity Camp at Melaka. It was so much fun. I got to make new friends of different ages, courses and backgrounds. Not just that, I volunteered for the 48^th Convocation Ceremony of UPM. I was tasked to collect funds for student charity and work as a registrar for the return of academic regalia. The best part is, I got paid for it #moneyhhhh. The advantage of being a CSA is that I get to collect university merits and certificates for any activities that I join. However, the disadvantage is I have to spend money on transportation to go to the alumni centre at White House.

With the Vice Chancellor, Prof Datin Paduka Dr Aini Ideris

UPM SQUASH CLUB

Haaaaa ini lagi lah tak disangkakan. Aida Amalia masuk sports?! I had no idea how I got involved in this club. It was so random. What I remember is that I represented my group for squash game during the college orientation week. Then, the coach asked whether I am interested to represent the college for the Intercollege Squash Tournament or not. Without hesitation, I simply wrote my name. We had to practice for the selection because not all who wrote their name will be chosen for the tournament. So, I as a very dedicated sports person #ceh, went to every practice so that I could join the tournament; not because I really want to but I just want to collect merits lol. In the end, I was chosen to be the manager of the group (ye lah, tak reti main squash so jadi manager je mampu). During the tournament, there’s someone who asked me to join UPM Squash Club. I didn’t want at first but he told me that he needed to find as many members as he could. So, I was like alolo kesian so I macam join je lah. Plus, my roommate also joined so I have company.

EDUCATION

Now, let’s move on to the not-so-boring part; the education. I am now pursuing my tertiary study in Bachelor of Chemistry. For semester 1, I registered for Basic Inorganic Chemistry, Calculus and Physical Chemistry for the core subjects. Calculus and Inorganic Chemistry are the toughest out of the three, I would say. In fact, for Test 1, I failed my Calculus paper huhu. This is my first time ever getting an ‘F’ in my tests/exams. To my surprise, I didn’t cry at all because I already expected it to be VERY bad right after I handed in my paper to the lecturer haha. For finals, I couldn’t answer my Calculus paper properly (ugh again); same goes for my Inorganic Chemistry paper. But all in all, the final result came and it was….okay….just enough for me to be entitled for a scholarship haha but no dean’s list award for me this sem :((

For semester 2, the core subjects that I registered were Organic Chemistry and Physics. I tried my best to keep track and focus on my studies for the first five weeks; especially Physics because Physics and I are practically enemies. Alhamdulillah, I managed to answer both papers well…. I mean as long as the marks I got are more than half of the total marks, I’m okay. 

However, this Covid-19 fella decided to show itself to the whole world and we’re asked to stay at home. (Read: a holiday) okay I’m just kidding haha. So, because of this, I become less productive, not even touching any books/lecture notes. I legit treat this MCO like a holiday. Plus, I’m at my hometown now so lagilah tak belajar. Cousins here, cousins there (disclaimer: I went back to my hometown before the RMO was announced okay! I didn’t break the rule, I’m a nice girl). So yeah, my goal to get dean’s list for semester 2 is yet nowhere to be seen.

So, I guess that's the end of my storytelling session about my degree life. Nothing much to talk about but I just want to keep it for memory in this digital diary of mine. Stay healthy, stay hygiene, and STAY AT HOME.

#dudukdirumah

#kitajagakita

Love,

Aida.