GREEN

More than half of my friends are doing medicine. 30% are doing engineering and the rest are doing other types of courses such as accountancy, pharmacy, poli sci and etc. Studying geology makes me out of the ordinary. Even till this day, I'm still happy that I rejected the offer to do medicine because the picture of me in a white coat and attending patients are something that I would not enjoy in the future. It's not that I can't pull it off, but I feel more satisfied doing something that doesn't have to do with talking and understanding people. I can only tolerate children (that include babies and toddlers). 

Ever since I was a kid, I always questioned myself about the existence of earth. How do rocks formed? Why do some places have volcanoes eg: Indonesia but Malaysia doesn't have one? How do you get gold? What kind of places you should head to if you want to look for petroleum? I never questioned about sickness or diseases; the topic doesn't intrigues me at all.

Perhaps, in future posts I should tell you what I do as a geology student. Not everyone can be a geologist, you need good eyes and understanding of many processes. You have to be physically and mentally tough, and eating out of canned foods when you are in the field feel like dining in a 5-stars restaurant. Earth is a subject that human still hasn't fully grasped; each day you'll learn a lot more and subjects in geology constantly change. In the early 1900's, scientists and geologists did not believe in plate tectonics. Nowadays, you can even predict the continents' locations in the next million years. 

I thank God that I'm not doing medicine. Thank You for helping me to choose my future. 

My happiest state of mind is when I'm in the field.

Green stick-notes on my mineral deposits notes. I enjoyed it very much.

LIGHT

Light, you need it to see.

Light, you need it to see AND guide you in darkness.

Light, you need it to see AND help you fight fear of darkness.

 

Light is unnecessary when I'm in bed. Nuff said, be grateful with the gifts from God; that includes light. Imagine, living in a cave and darkness is surrounding you. None of us will like it. 

Reflection from my lamp and Darcy being melancholic. As the clouds move, a ray of sunlight appears and warms the ground in this cold winter month.

HAT

' I would travel across the land'

'Searching far and wide'

-Pokemon theme song

The 2 lines from one of my favorite songs reflect my life as a future geologist. I love what I'm doing now, often expressed it in my previous posts. I just simply like the idea of waking up at 6am, driving for a few minutes or hours to destinations, arrive and look at the landscapes. When the prof/s post/s questions such as, "tell me what you see", "what do you think happened to the rocks?", "why did you say this is a metamorphic rock? give me the evidence" etc, I would cram my brain and try to remember all those hours spent in classes and labs looking at AFM diagram, identifying muscovite and phlogopite, and cursing my way through the semester while trying to keep my sanity. I also love having my lunch under the sun while admiring the thrust fold that overturned the underlying rocks. And now I know how mountains are made and what will happen to the Everest in million years from now.

The more you see, the less you know.

And it humbles me. We are so tiny like a speck of dust in the galaxy that we actually know almost nothing about the universe.

Again, it humbles me.

Chile, Feb 2011: My usual field trip gears - a hat, a hand lens, a rock hammer, a pair of hiking boots, a pair of shades, a bagpack (with water, snack bars, sunscreen, vaseline, write-in-the-rain notebook, camera), my dice-watch, sometimes a compass. Oh, a sweater/jacket, t-shirt and jeans/hiking pants.

SWEET

I'm not a big fan of sweet food or drinks. I don't hate them but I prefer not to have them. I love ice cream but, I always cringe when I have, let's say, vanilla, praline cake or other sweet flavours. They make my teeth hurt which implies that I have sensitive teeth and also make me dizzy. Whenever Ahnaf and I had coffee, he made me try his and I would just made the annoying face since he knew that I didn't like his coffee, it was always too sweet! But, that's just me. 

Wahida's cake that is still in our fridge. Too sweet. Finished my slice but  it was just SWEET!

Sweetness is a trait that I wish I have. Although my friends often call me sweet, probably because I'm always polite (I'm not boasting but that's the most common comment I get from my friends), I could use a drop or two of sweetness in life. Thankfully, life has been good for me and I don't wish to trade it with anything. But hey, you need some sugar in your diet thus, why not put some amount in your life as well?

:)

STREET

December has always been a special month for me since my father and I were born in this month. Being a December baby has always makes me feel younger than the rest of my friends. They turned 22 when I was still in my 21 and that affects my psychology in a funny way. It makes me feel that I can achieve more in my life, in terms of studies and relationships. If I graduate in June 2014, I will be 23.6 years old. Phew, to graduate when I turn 23 is a big deal, trust me. That means I have another 6 months to accomplish other goals such as applying geology to the real world (WORK!) and maybe, travel to Iceland; all of that before I turn 24.

To celebrate my favorite month, I will upload a picture every day to remind me of the things, be it just a pencil, the clouds, my cats or even a speck of mineral, that I hold dear to my heart. 

So photo uno numero, on 10th December 2012 (my birthday):

Under Tommy is a newspaper. He and Darcy sometimes snuggle, with the newspaper underlying them.
Tag: under

Tommy, he drives me crazy every single day when he decides to wait in front of the door and meows his heart out because outdoor is surprisingly more exciting than playing in the shower. But I still love him.

WALL

When you miss home and the closest ones, it's good to sometimes take a break and think about the good memories you had.

DAWN

It won't hit you until it actually happens. This is exactly happening to me as countdown to Ahnaf's departure is nearing. I generally suck at containing my sad emotion and you can tell it from my face that the day could be one of the worst days in life.

To console myself from the sadness, I need to get myself occupy with schools and other relevant stuff. It will be boring without him. PLAIN BORING.

Do you have any ideas on how to keep up with the upcoming boredom cause seriously, I will be needing one, or maybe two, or maybe simply more.

Cheers!

ONLINE

Successfully bought 3 pieces of blouse from POPLOOK and they had it delivered from Malaysia to Canada. It took only 10 days for my new clothes to arrive. I'm really satisfied with their service and I will definitely get more clothes from them. The price is reasonable, the delivery charges are quite cheap (taxes etc) and I'm so happy that everything turned out to be great.

I'm always skeptical when buying things online because if things do go wrong for example, wrong size, delivery doesn't reach on time or worse, it doesn't reach your place at all, I will have the hardest time ever to get refund etc.

For ladies out there, do check this website: www.thepoplook.com

DEBATE

As a Geology student, I had been given with the opportunities to go to many places under the tag-line field education. I must say that these were many of my best memories and I didn't ever imagined to reach those places, let alone to learn about 'em in my lifetime. But, I had been there. And would never trade the memories with anything, because they were just awesome.

2011-Chile
2012-SW USA
2013-Possibly New Zealand

I feel obligated to share about my experiences as a student and a tourist (at the same time). But writing is never an expertise of mine. It is always hard to pour my thoughts and feelings about the trips but I will hopefully do it, when I have ample time to just sit and upload all the good pictures from my Facebook with little elaboration alongside them. If you're reading this, you might be an engineering or a medical student; me, being different than most of my friends will be more than happy to share my life as a Geology student.

Hopefully, this will be consistent.

Cheers to regular update.

VINYL

Waking up to the sound of Tommy is a normal, typical day for me. Life gets extra special if he decides to sleep or play in the morning without having to wake me up with the sound of his ever catty voice.

It gets so annoying when he stands on the shelf, meowing for the reflections to come down when he sees one at 4 in the morning. Sometimes, it gets to my nerve that it makes me one to punch him, if he's a human.

To Tommy, mummy loves you so much but, HOLY SHIZ! Slow down on the meowing at 4am crazy cat!

MIB

I left my blog for quite a while ever since I went back to Malaysia for summer break. It was clearly a fun summer although I wish I had more time at home, just lazying around with family and friends. But the thought of Ahnaf being alone in TO while I got to have fun had me feeling sad. Since coming back, I am swamped with works, my responsibilities in the UGA and MASAT and looking for possible internship placements. I had been planning to get a job here but hey, with many friends are getting married next year, might as well kill two birds with a stone. Weddings and job... Perfect!

So a toast to a great school year ahead!

FUR

It feels so good to be in love.

I hope that he is truly the one. 

Please answer my prayer.

BEACON

Currently thinking of revamping my closet which will officially take place after I come back to Canada from summer break. But here are the tricky parts:

1. I need clothes; jeans, pants, shirt, tshirts, scarves, jackets (fall/winter), hoodies (for the lazy time), gloves
2. I need clothes; hiking pants, my torn-out jean which was a good idea to bring it all the way from Malaysia,
    t-shirts, hoodies, jacket and rain pants, scarves, gloves. Take note this really depends on the place I'll be
    heading to and the weather. Ain't gonna need no rain jacket or winter jacket if I'm going to Sahara.
3. I need clothes for formal events ie: graduation, presentation, meeting or formal meet-and-greet and any
    events that require formality.

What I'm going to do is save a lotta money, get the cheapest stuff I can find in Malaysia and they have to be nice and easy to wear. Once I come back to Canada, I'll get more stuff and start my closet re-vamp-a-tion. That's the name of the operation. I'm truly excited for this and hopefully Ahnaf will at least say yay to clothes
that I'm going to buy.

ps: I'm not a camwhore for sure but can I take a picture of myself without looking like one ugly b****?

CRAMP

For the past few months (since the last time I updated my blog), I have been doing a lot of thinking about my future. The super short-term goals, short-term goals, long-term goals which include my studies, money and wedding. Alhamdulillah, my winter term was good although Structural killed my GPA like there's no other way that it can become any better. 2 weeks after my last exam, I went for a field course in Whitefish Falls, northern Ontario. A small town near Sudbury and very much close to Lake Huron. I was in love in the area so much because the sceneries were breathtaking. And for the first time in life, I got to see beavers, in their real environment! And beavers' damp!! That thing is monstrous damp I tell you.

Kicking off summer with nothing but going out almost every day and enjoying the heat. It feels like Malaysia since sweating is no longer a privilege (how I wish I can sweat during winter, but come to think of it, those droplets are just gonna make the coldness even worse). I will have a new place for next semester which is less fancy than my current place but oh well, just need to be grateful with whatever you have. New York is not happening! Because I need to save up money for the new place and other important stuff ie. shopping, shopping and more shopping. 

Ahnaf will be graduating next Wednesday and Friday will be the day I'm flying off to Malaysia. 2 months without him will suck a lot since I have been spending time with him, every day. We have been talking a lot about our future and to tell you the truth, it's kinda scary. I am excited to settle down once my study is complete and earn some moolah for house and money-making investment. With wedding invitations from friends filling up my Facebook's events list, I'm starting to think that marriage is nothing that can be rushed. Ending my school life with just a degree is not something I intend to do and same goes with him, so we have a big plan about marriage and continuing our study to earn a Master's Degree. I will not take more about this since I believe it should only be for the two of us, perhaps families but not for all to know.

Winter 2012 will be good. I can feel it in the air. Also who's up for South America tour?! Give me a shout out!

PS: London. BAMM! 

APOLLO 13

It is funny how superstitions can corrupt one's mind even the intellectuals. After watching Apollo 13 documentary at History Channel, I come to think that man is nothing but super, tiny, helpless creature that needs constant reminder about the existence of The Higher Power.

Just a tiny error, so tiny, just the thermostat that kept heating the liquid oxygen, just some forgotten procedure that someone forgot to cross-out from the check list, enough to cost a dream being shattered and can never be achieved again. And how Hollywood depicted almost everything accurately (bear in mind that the tag line, "Houston, we have a problem", was never spoken by Jim Lovell).

Human can do so many but He is the one who has the final say.

I never thought of shedding some tears while watching it. Reminds me of the Almighty.

BROMANCE

Less than 2 weeks before school ends and I'll be saying goodbye to second year. Wait, field school is waiting so not saying goodbye, YET, until Whitefish ends. I'm pretty content with school so far. After the epic field trip, going back to school was something that I looked forward to but grade was bad which I expected after the horror of structural first midterm.

WHY PIERRE? WHY DID YOU PUT THAT MAP THAT WE DIDN'T LEARN IN LAB? WHY? WHY?

Ok, so that's in the past. Now talking about present.

Be getting the mark for the second midterm. Fingers cross, all I need is a pass and I know what to do for final. And I think I can do it although the mark is still vague but I would still be satisfied with any number. Not to say I'm not smart, HELL YEAH I'M SMART. But structural geology is not something you can learn and get just by looking at the map. Unless if you're Alex which pretty much gets 90 in all classes.

Insyallah, this semester will be better. That's all I'm asking for.

House hunting is tiring, NY is still a plan but depends on whether baby scores any job, at least for the summer. If he does, god bless that he has a good future. Praying the best for him. Less than 3 months before home and research job yeahhhh! Score 1 for myself

:)

SHIT

This semester is nothing but BAD. Okay not too bad cause I went to the most awesome field trip ever and looking forward to more of it in the future, but it is still a pretty bad semester.

Well, classes are hard. Had to drop one class because I was supposed to have a midterm the week I came back from the trip and fever took control of my body which later forced me to study metamorphic ONLY, instead of REMOTE SENSING and METAMORPHIC. To make things worse, Geochem mark is up and surprisingly, everyone did bad including me. Whaddaheck happened la wei?! We are totally shocked with the marks.

I guess dropping 1 class is a good decision since I will have more time to study. Freaking TV stop seducing me.

Lord, help me please because You are the best.

STRATIGRAPHY

Salam and hello,

A week before another awesome chance to discover and explore the world from the eyes of geologist. Before the excitement starts, I have to endure another week of midterm and labs and readings to be settled so that once I come back from Grand Canyon (via La Vegas!), I will not be overwhelmed with the workload.

A list of things to do/get it over with:

1)319 Labs - 2

2) 441 Labs and data extraction

3) 441 readings :(

4) Structural lab (man, you totally pull my grade down yesterday)

5) Aqueous geochem midterm

6) Archaeo essay

I wish not to make you feel bored with the list of things that explains quite a lot about my school life but hey, that's the only thing I can think about right now. Also I need to buy some socks, hats (beanies) and lotion for the field trip. Don't want my skin to dry and crack up during the hike and sleeping in the tent with temperature below minus.

Thank god for geology, I love what I am doing now and it gives me good opportunity to just go around and places that not everyone can go to.

I wonder where geology will take me next year. Perhaps Hawaii:)

Now that, would be a totally cool field trip.