Last Tuesday, Noris, Et and I went to the Admin Building. Sampai sana semua buat hal masing-masinglah. Et pergi Pendaftar, Noris cucuk duit kat bank, dan saya pergi apply sticker motor untuk Coach kat kaunter Keselematan. Dah setel everything, me and Noris pun duduk la lepak-lepak sementara tunggu Et.

Suddenly adalah this one woman, kakak apa entah namanya, approached kita orang. Dia tanya macam mana nak pergi ke FSKTM. Kebetulan memang fakulti kita orang, so bagilah direction kat dia. Kakak ni pun ceritalah dia nak buat PhD semua, bawah Dr. MO, etc. Then dia tanya nama. As usual, when people ask my name, I would simply said 'Lin'. However, dengan kakak ni, dia nak tahu nama penuh. I was kinda shocked jugak ler. Apsal nak tahu nama penuh? Again I said, just Lin. But she insisted to know. Fine, I told her. To me it just a name.

Esoknya pukul 3++ dia datang bilik. Mukadimahnya, dia cakaplah dah jumpa officer incharged for Post Graduate ni, tak dapat jumpa Dr. MO, nak hold dulu buat PhD, etc. Tu takpe lagi. Tup tap tiba-tiba keluar alasan dia nak hold sebab buat bisnes. Dan bermulalah episod tensen bila dia start promote bisnes dia.

Adus! Geram jugak rasanya. Dah le tengah menulis nak siapkan novel remaja dewasa waktu tu, dia pula dok cerita pasal bisnes. Saya paling tak berkenan orang datang bilik, lepas tu dok promote-promote bisnes yang saya memang sah-sah tak minat. Style kita orang kat sini, kalau ada salesman datang je, memang cepat-cepat lari.

Bukan taknak tolong, tapi terkilan jugak. Baru kenal dia, berkenalan hari yang sebelumnya, tak sangka pulak dia ada agenda lain. Minta nama penuh semata-mata nak promote bisnes. Dah tu, pushy jugak la suh datang wat facial and sauna kat tempat dia. Alahai kak, kena lah faham. Setengah orang dah ada facial tetap, tak boleh lah suruh-suruh datang dengan alasan facialnya lagi murah.

Entahlah, itu mungkin cara untuk dapatkan customer. Tapi saya tak suka orang yang berpura-pura berkenalan, rupanya agenda sebenar nak cari customer jek. Lebih baik datang as saleswoman betul dan promote bisnes. At least memang tahu tujuannya sah-sah untuk promote. Tak ada lah sakit hati.

p/s: Berniaga cara berhemah...

Tadi kena panggil dengan Dekan. Alahai.. berdebarnya rasa, Tuhan aja yang tahu. Mana taknye, awal sikit tadi Dekan pergi meeting untuk cuti belajar ni. Selama ni tak pernah le pulak dia panggil untuk beritahu result. Tu yang macam-macam thoughts keluar.

On the way gi jumpa Dekan, dah set dalam mind UPM tak luluskan sambung belajar kat NZ ni. Nanti tak le kecewa sangat. Tapi Alhamdulillah, Dekan kata UPM dah approved, dan application tu dah di-forward-kan ke KPT. Tunggu keputusan dari KPT je lah.

Borak-borak dengan Pian pasal tempat tinggal ni. Almaklumle dia banyak pengalaman study kat Australia dulu. Pian tolong bagi contact Otago Malaysian Students Association (OMSA). Lega rasa. Baru rasa confident sikit nak gi. Yang paling best, dalam persatuan ni ada game volleyball gak. Yay!

p/s: Tunggu result KPT.....

The next major step yang saya kena buat ialah to determine kat mana nak tinggal bila dah sampai kat Otago nanti. Hmmm... ni pun payah jugak nak fikir. Untuk semua International Students, memang gerenti diberi tempat tinggal. Cuma masalahnya... tempat tu lah.

Choices yang ada: Residential Colleges/Halls atau University Flats. Kalau pilih Halls, sama macam duduk kat hostel. Bilik sorang satu with internet connection (ni yang best), shared bathroom, fully catered, and of course banyak sport facilities including volleyball. Kalau Flats, hmm.. bilik sorang satu gak tapi macam dok kat rumah sewa sini lah.

Mak suh dok hostel jek sebab utama, tak familiar lagi dengan suasana kat sana. Ikut hati memang nak dok hostel jek... cuma... hmmm... makanan je lah. Ada Halls yang sediakan halal food. Tapi tu semua available dari February. Tempat lain yang confirm memang sediakan vegetarian food. Adus! Takkan nak jadi vegie untuk setahun permulaan ni. Dah le makin kurus sebab dok main, ni kang tambah kurus sebab tak cukup makan. Alahai...

La ni tengah dok survey-survey Halls. Nak kena decide betul-betul, email orang sana tanya pasal food. Kalau food dah setel, as long as ada internet connection dan volleyball facility, I'll be definitely fine hehe... Oh ya... pasal bilik air ni pun satu hal gak.. tapi tu insya-Allah bley adapt ;)

p/s: susah nya sejak blog kena block nih. nak baca komen pun tak dapat huhu

I simply said..."This is my way of improving my English."

Suddenly I got an offer to further my study in Univesity of Otago, New Zealand. So now I've got my chance to fully optimize my English for minimum of 3 years. Meaning... I can write my blog in Malay :)

Reaksi pertama waktu dapat offer... hmmm.. terkejut... sebab kena lapor diri dalam puasa tahun ni... tapi baru ni email supervisor minta extend registration lepas raya, and he said ok. Harap-harap dapatlah black & white nya. Kalau tak dengan syahdunya tahun ni sambut raya kat tempat orang huhu sedihnya.

Anyway.. ni lah gambar bakal department yang saya akan pergi nanti.. Department of Computer Science. University Of Otago, yang tertua di New Zealand (kalau tak silap) terletak kat Dunedin, kat mana orang ramai boleh tengok burung Royal Albastross.

Entahlah.. rasa seronok bercampur sedih. Seronok sebab dah lama berangan nak sambung belajar kat oversea. Dulu masa buat degree, dah hampir nak gi US, tiba-tiba gawat. So sambung kat MMU. Master pun dapat offer sambung kat University of Tasmania, Australia, tapi sebab tak ada sponsor masa tu, at last sambung kat UPM. Kali ni dapat rezeki, cuma sedih nak tinggal banyak benda kat sini... family, bola tampar.... menulis hehe..

Speaking of menulis.... insya-Allah akan diteruskan. Bak kata Nabil, nanti dapat suasana baru untuk menulis. Tambahan lagi New Zealand is such a beautiful country! Sekarang ni tengah bertungkus-lumus nak siapkan my first Novel Remaja Dewasa. Dah hampir 170 pages. Kalau tak ada aral, nak siapkan before pergi ke tournament volleyball kat Perlis nanti. Harap-harap kak Aina suka lah dengan cerita tu nanti hehe

Kalau dapat juga, nak siapkan dua buku awal remaja untuk siri Pengembaraan Fantasi sebelum fly ke New Zealand. Tinggi cita-cita tu. Sebelum pergi, kena beli scanner letak kat kampung.. almaklum ler illustrator merangkap abang dok kat kampung. Malas nak cari illustrator baru kat New Zealand tu.

Aiseh! Lepas ni mesti rindu gila nak ikut aktiviti KarnaDya... Tak apa, dah pasang niat nak balik tiap-tiap tahun. Harap-harap masa balik cuti tu ada lah KarnaDya buat apa-apa eh ;)

Well, wish me luck!

I don't know how else would I describe this feeling. It has always been my dream to win Volleyball tournament for Inter-PTJ. I put all my efforts to it since last year. I trained my teammate to make sure they can play well so that we can win the title. And we did. We won yesterday! Yay!

It was our faculty best achievement for this year after the other games made an early exit, except for Men's Volleyball team who made it to the final and became the 1st runner up. Good job guys!

Our team was predicted to claim the title. During our game, the other teams were looking, and tried their very best not to meet us at the very early stage. Kinda funny though. 3 years ago we started as nobody. Surprisingly we made to the semi with lots of unsatisfied voices. Yeah, we weren't good enough to be in the semi. We made it by luck.

But now things changed. We improved ourselves. We set target to win this year. Before the game ended, I told both of my housemates (who were also in the team) that I really wanted badly to win this as my birthday present, and finally my wish was granted. Not just simply winning, but winning while I was captaining the team. I couldn't be more happier than this.

Gosh, I love volleyball so much that I have created doubt in furthering my study somewhere else. I love my team, and I've already had my comfort in UPM Women's Volleyball team as well. As for the inter-varsity, we will be competing in University Malaysia Perlis this coming June. Hopefully we'll make it this year :)

After winning in the semi-final against Pusat Keselamatan Universiti

Before the final, together with the opponent (Fakulti Pendidikan)

The gay faces of the winners and supporters!

I've already come out with 3 teen novels in the Pengembaraan Fantasi series. Writing story for teens is not that tough. You have an interesting plot, convert them into wordings, and walla! You have your book already.

Having 3 is not enough for me. I have 2 more stories in the waiting list for the series, but they have to be put on hold. I move a step further: writing a story for the young adult.

Basically, there ain't much different for both of them. Both require an interesting plot. However, for young adult, details are a little bit crucial. The plot must be developed carefully through out the story. To keep readers glued till the end of the story is another challenge. Revealing most of the information at the early stage will spoil the whole story.

So how to do it? I'm not really sure if I can do it. I'm still in the process of writing it. Furthermore, the genre that I choose is still the same: mystery/thriller/fantasy. Only this time I try to write something based on reality. No magic, but there'll be some lunatics out there. Not much romance, but more on revenge. And it shouldn't be that funny.

Up till now, I only managed to write 100 pages. Fuh! 200 more to go before I can submit my first manuscript for the young adult. I really want to complete this as soon as possible, while the students are on their break, and while my volleyball training haven't started yet.

Yes..yes! I can do it!