41

Salam and hello,

I am finally back in TO after a good summer break in Malaysia. A lot of things happened during the summer, good and 'bad'. Perhaps challenging would be a better word.

If the title of the post is 42, it would have been much better. Fans of Hitchhiker's Guide to The Galaxy would understand why.

I haven't fully settled down in terms of schedule and also mind, this is a bit of a distress. The moment when I know I have too much free time in my hand is alarming. I need to do something to keep my mind occupied. Hopefully I can get a job so it can keep me going.

Alhamdulillah, I had the chance to go to Thailand with my family during the break. The trip was planned because I needed some rubies for my thesis. If I am going to do a Master in the future, gemology will not be the field I would go into although it can be a 'beautiful' study. By beautiful I mean like really beautiful, imagine having to look at all the gemstones, ruby, emerald, diamond, jade . Who would not want that?

GOLD-TIPPED ROOF

Bangkok is a cool city, much cooler than KL. Bigger, grander, livelier. I really liked the city. 

Toast to 4th and final year. May God ease my way, amin.

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

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! 

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.