It's getting harder...

3 weeks of Pavement Materials and I can already feel the heat. The subject is getting tougher by the minute and nothing's a joke anymore. Whoever said Masters is easy should be put in prison and whipped. It's not easy at all...!

Everything's in the fast lane and if you don't catch up, you're gonna get left behind. I thought pavement materials is as easy as knowing the materials. I thought wrong. It's EVERYTHING about the materials, in terms I have never heard of in my life! And the worst thing is, I am not even exaggerating! You know what rheology is? Of course not. When did you ever had to use the term 'rheology' in your life.

yep. I still don't get it either. 

And the list goes on. The reason I don't write em in here (to make my point) is because I forgot them. There's just soooo many scientific bituminous (or asphaltic for that matter) terms that I had to pretend I know, so I don't get questioned in class.

I'm not saying the lecturer is bad. He's awesome in his ways. Hell he knows everything about pavement materials without glancing at a book. Even I wonder how on earth could a human being keep so much input in the brains without ONCE referring to anything? But the thing is, we (the students) are not like that. We just woke up happy one day and suddenly had to learn the rheological properties of bitumen. At least now I know how my students feel when I talk and talk and force them to listen and understand, when they clearly don't.

So i got a book. A copied book which is illegal in most countries. But we can't help being Asian and the reason why we are not poor is because we tend to save a lot from piracy. And I got another book which is NOT a copy. An original book by the professor himself. I don't know why I'm writing this down but since this is my master's journal, everything is important.

we bought a book

Friendswise: All is well I can assume. I got some girls who laugh as much as I do. There's a couple of girls who have this weird, snobbish aura, but ignorable. The other guys tend to stick with their cliques. I guess to avoid complications knowing how the minds of the local work. But I will survive.

I should start reading through notes before class begins. My laziness is killing me.

The Money, The Power and The Ego

I have met obnoxious people in my life before. You know the kind who got lucky in life, getting rich by luck and a little effort. These people appear everywhere in social medias and in and out of our daily lives. The thing is, most people are subtle about these things. They tend to be very careful in hiding their real agenda between captions and background images. You have to be very observant to realize that their Instagrams are always about the "brands" instead of the product.

a little introduction...

Last night's class should be named after the professor. It was 90% about his life than it was about the course. And trust me, he wasn't even trying to be subtle, as he talked about 'depreciation' of value.

"Let me give you an example. I bought my Mercedes E series for 407k. In 5 years the value changed to 100k..."

Okay so, this is nothing, right? It continues..

"So while waiting to buy a new E-series car, I decided to sell the one I have... Oh by the way this is just me. I like changing cars, only Class A cars by the way... because it's the ONE thing I can do..." (apparently golf, fishing and other hobbies don't exist in the world of the rich and fabulous)

You get it now? No?

"Now let's talk about 'appreciation' of value. I give myself as an example. 10 years ago I bought a land in a nearby area for 1.7million. After changing it from agriculture to commercial, the value of my land is now 10million..."

Okay we get it. You're rich.

"The last time I went to Europe on a private tour package..."

And he kept rubbing it in our faces all night long, in between politic talks about how Najib and Dr M got screwed over by some guy named Jo Low (however you spell it). Something that shouldn't be discussed in a class full of foreigners. Sigh, professor. Where is your professionalism? I realized I only admired his success in life for the first 5 minutes of the class. At first I was like whoaaa... a rich ass professor. I like this guy. But after 10 examples (revolving around himself), the class appeared as a joke.

It got worse when he started to say he could recognize the rich people and poor people in the class. While shamelessly pointing out examples. That's cruel, man.

And if you spend the first class criticizing the lecturer, you know you're gonna have a hard time all semester long. So the solution is to come back to this class next semester with a positive mind. At least I'd know what's coming.

Time to burst that balloon, Professor Trump. 

Lemme Take a Selfie

So, I usually arrive at class early. One time I decided to take a selfie. Here it is... For absolutely no reason at all...

First to arrive in class. Great opportunity for a selfie. 

So it's been a week...

...since my last post... Well, not exactly my last post, but a week since an experience worth blogging about. Everyday since then had been normal, busy and blogworthless. Wow I invented a new word there, see? No? Never mind.

So this whole week was alright. Nothing interesting happened in class except I found out that Masters is NOT as easy as everybody made it out to be. My only advantage is my language skills which doesn't matter much since everyone else is equipped with their hands-on engineering skills. It's gonna be a tough fight to survive and pass this, I know.

So I'm all set. I have dropped the ridiculously boring Research Methodology. I am now appealing to register for Construction Business Management. I hope all will turn out fine and I'll be all set to grad on time.

...and the MOST BORING lecturer award goes to...

Sunday's professor.. Have you ever been so bored in class, you wanna poke your finger into your eye, reach through your brains... and swirl it all around? Yeah. That was how Sunday's class went. It was only the first class for Research methodology and this particular lecturer took the whole 3 hours to introduce us to a galaxy of infinite research chapters.

It sucked.

And all that was in my mind was to equip myself with a shotgun and blast somebody's head off. I'll give you a hint. Not mine.

It's not really my thing, condemning lecturers. I mean, I am an educator myself but hell, I actually took effort to make my classes as interesting as possible. It's 2016 for God's sake! Why would you make rules that defies the need of humanity? The rules, as I can recall are as the following:

1. All Mobiles, PDS, Smartphones, Tablets MUST be SWITCHED OFF
2. Do NOT talk to your neighbours

So basically it's prison. It's prison to torcher us 30+ year olds who did nothing wrong except pay to be in this boringness of a class. No talking. No playing with the phone. And No Sleeping. Mhm... There's only one solution to survive this semester.

 DROP.

 

So much for a "holiday"...

You know what they call this scheme i'm in, taking 18 months off work to pursue my masters? Well in Malay it's called Cuti Belajar Bergaji Penuh Dengan Biasiswa (CBBP DB) or translated into English as Fully Paid Study Leave with Scholarship. But see that word "Cuti"? Yeah... It means holidays... as in wake up everyday at noon and sleep at 3 am. Holidays...as in FREEDOM to do things according to your own schedule.

But NOPE. My dream to have a 3 day weekend twice is shattered by the fact that I have classes on both Saturday and Sunday. So while people are flying back home for Eid (al-adha) on Monday and Malaysia Day on Friday... I am stuck having to attend classes. Bummer, indeed!

Anyways today is my 4th day attending class. The course is called Pavement Management System (PMS). The lecturer is a senior engineer, Mr Z from JKR. So far, I'm getting along fine with my classmates, although cliqueness is in store and I am sure I am nobody's favourite. (Everyone is so married!) But yeah, it's all good. Also. in all 4 classes, I was always the first one to arrive. Talk about being Hermione-ish.

So far, these are the subjects I'm taking. Plot twist, though... The Monday class has changed to Wednesday, and the Wednesday class has moved to Saturday, 9am -12pm. So as for right now, my off-days are on Monday and Tuesday... 

Statistics All Over Again...

And so, the nightmare returns... Remember the 17 days course I had to attend in April-May? Well, yesterday's class was all about that. So I have to dedicate another 45 hours of my life to pass this course. It's scary, but somehow I gotta do it.

 The lecturer, Prof Dr Law seemed nice. But obviously nice won't guarantee an A. I guess, it's time to go book hunting in the so-called huge UPM library, somewhere I don't know yet. And it is during moments like these I am thankful the QA course was compulsory. And that we had to sit through an exam to pass it.

If I keep my brains rolling, I might have a chance to score this subject. I just need to dig through my old notes again. Oh I also found a friend. Kinda quiet and doesn't speak much but seems okay. She's also on study leave so yeah, glad to know I am not alone.

Tehopa Tohobe... Here I come...!

Image by Google, duh!

First Class and First Assignment

I realized that I have been staying at my sister's house for 4 days now and I have only attended ONE class. Yesterday's class was the rescheduled Pavement Materials by Dr Ratna. So far, it seemed okay. I have a feeling it'll be a tough one, so hopefully I can catch up. Got my first assignment, a research on pavement materials and testings. I have the notes for that, just need to arrange it in an ''assignment" manner.

The cost of living in KL is madness. I think I have spent almost 1k on stuff I don't even remember buying. Classes starts mostly at 6pm and so far I have been spending the day traveeling here and there and in Shopping Malls. I need a change of lifestyle!

Friends-wise... Well there's a couple of girls that seemed nice. I met them during Monday's cancelled lecture. The rest of the (malay) girls seem kinda quiet, and others are male foreigners so I felt a little bit awkward, knowing the noisy klutz that I am. It's okay though, this isn't high school anymore. Masters classes are not about sticking to your cliques. It's all about surviving in a man's world known as Engineering. I think I can do this.

I gotta take up 5 subjects in order to graduate within 3 semesters. It's a long bumpy ride, but I'm good to go. Stay positive, Anne!

I think I wrote a book about this... I got this. 

Day 1 : Changed Schedule & Meeting New People

Master Journey Sem 1, day 1... So i went to the first class yesterday, at 4pm which was 2 hours early to make sure i wouldn't get lost. Turned out they changed the class to Wednesday!!! And told us through email 30 mins before 6. I mean, who checks their email that often anymore? Hahaha... Now I know how students feel when we cancelled classes last minute. Lesson learned. But it was fun, though... I managed to not get lost. 😆. #studentlifeftw

In Universities, we have to be prepared for randomly changing class schedules. 

A photo of the Engineering Faculty Auditorium