SOUTH

Fall has always been my favorite, particularly this year. Since this is going to be last time to enjoy the 4 seasons, I decided to embrace everything that the seasons bring along. For example:

1. Fall-the brown and gold leaves, the breeze that blows away all the falling leaves, the chilly yet sunny weather, sweater in the early morning, t-shirt during the day and back to sweater in the evening.

2. Winter-the cold, the snow, the strong wind that makes everyone hugs themselves tightly, the coffee run to nearest Timmys or Second Cup, winter boots and jackets, layers and layers of clothes

3. Spring-constant rain, flower buds, chilly morning, wet fields, smell of grass after the rain, perfect time to wear flower-patterned clothes and scarfs.

4. Summer-ice coffee for $1, sweaty yet dry weather, flip-flops and sandals, basking under the sun, and... GRADUATION!

May God ease my journey, alongside with my friends.

6 months until the last day of exam.
8 months to graduation.

Graduation request, done. Now to wait for the emails for grad photo session and ceremony dates to be posted :)

BENNY BELT

Salam and hello,

I guess it is expected of me to abandon my blog for a while. My hectic schedule especially the last 2 weeks of school had taken its toll on my life. Right after the submission of my last assignment, I sat for my first final exam for 3rd year on the next day. The exam itself wasn't too bad but the labs pulled my grade down. I had been putting a high expectation on myself this year and I managed to live up to it. However, this semester was certainly a tough one.

Holiday has officially started. I'll be leaving for my 14-days field school in Benny Belt, Sudbury. Coming back to TO on the 15th, probably around 5pm and I will have a 5,6 hours gap before my flight back to Malaysia. I so can't wait to go back! This summer is going to be F.U.N.

This blog has always been dusty. To keep it updated, I came up with an idea. For the next month, I will try to post pictures on anything interesting that can be worth sharing. Something that I may witness with my own eyes and remind me of any peculiar moments or simply beautiful/funny shots of life around me. Caution! Since I will be away for 14 days with limited time for blogging, I might have to update my blog every other day or perhaps, whenever I will be free.

I'm excited for this. Like my own virtual scrap book.

Cheers!

BACKACHE

Went for a badminton training yesterday with some friends; as usual pain is radiating from my right lower back all the way to my right shoulder. I need to bear the pain sigh...

On another note, here's what boredom and tiredness does to you.

81 days to home. I am excited;D

MARBLE

It's snowing outside but it won't be as bad as last week which is good. But the snow doesn't affect my daily routine or should I say my reading week routine.

This is my first reading week where I'm not outside of Canada. My first reading week was in Chile and my first time in South America. I have been a big fan of the continent because of its colourful cultures, my dream came true in February 2011 when I was there for a field trip.

On top of one the mountains in the Andes Range.

6 hours of climbing and got my 10.5cm scar on our way down from the mountain. With Hernan, Daphne and Lailmah.

 Last reading week was spent in another trip to SW USA. Another field trip with (almost) the same crowd. We have grown fond of each other and it feels different without them.

The morning after spending 2 nights in Death Valley.

 Truthfully, I don't have a lot of Malaysian friends in Canada because of my background (KMB, Petronas etc). I have one close Malaysian friend and we actually came to a conclusion that we are each other's close friend because we don't have a lot of Malaysian friends. We know the Malaysians but they are acquaintances, the one that you acknowledge as Malaysian when you bump into each other on the street. My closest friends are my classmates, from many backgrounds. We spent almost 3 years in the same classes, sleep in the same room, do coffee run in winter together, share our problems about school or personal matters and we shop together. I am not the type of person who will take pictures of every, single, thing and upload it on FB or Instagram (not that I have one) but I know that we cherish our friendships.

I am actually very glad that I'm not in UK or Ireland because the dense population of people that know me or have some sorta connections to me will make my life less private. It's as public as it can be and I don't need eye-prying people to mind my business.

Have you ever thought of having a more-private life?

Coffee, essential item to survive study period.

c

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.

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.

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.

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! 

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.