back to basics

After a month long of relaxing in Oxford, classes finally started. To think of it, it is a good thing but some how deep inside I hope for holidays to go on longer. But, that the way it is. This fall, my classes are pretty spread out as my classes start in the afternoon for Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Tuesday and Thursday, I have classes at 2 but I need to go for work early in the morning. I guess my schedule is not too bad. This week has been going very slow but it has not been hectic. Classes are pretty much the same with different variety brought on the table. The only complain I have is working hours because I need to work 4 hours continuously to get a free meal. That is definitely a pain in the butt because I expect to save my cash to eat in the dining halls. Now, I need to cook in my apartment so that I can save money. The best part of this week was the football game that I went to on Thursday. Don't get mixed up here, football means real football, not the soccer back home. Thursday home game was Miami University VS Vanderbilt. Miami's football is not as good as hockey but it is still interesting. I think football is more of a strategy game where coaches need to have their own game style. Personally, I prefer to see the hockey game because the atmosphere is more livier and exciting. For our first home game, Miami was trailing 10-24 at half time. I did not know what happened after that but I left the game because it waws getting late.
This weekend will be awesome too. Monday is a holiday because it is Labor Day. AAA is going to have a picnic to recruit new members and after that there will be a after-party. ~woohoo~

welcomes a new fall semester

Today was so tiring because I had to wake up at 7 to help with carpet sales for Asian American Association(AAA). It is so hard to wake up sometimes but you if you have the motivation, then you will wake up but if not then you will just sleep through. That is how the brain works. After getting ready, I walked over to my sister's apartment which is a few blocks down the road, thankfully. A few minutes later, Liz (the president of AAA) pick us up in her fabulous ride, the Porsche Cayenne. Okay, I did not make this up, but she owns and drive this car. Classy ride.Nice way to start the day don't you think??Sitting in this car on a early morning.
The pick-up truck was already parked at the basketball court which was full of carpets. We had to unload the carpets and stack them in piles. I did not know that there is a difference between carpets. Have you ever heard the word Berber?? No right, that the term to categorized carpets...Well, I learned something new again today...
After lunch, I had to go for another checkpoint. This checkpoint is the most daunting task for the day, working at the Student Credit Union. It is a bank especially for students that has a simillar function like a bank but does not suck your money out completely. So, I headed in and right at that moment, I had to do a teller shift. Aug 21, is the day students move in to their respective dorms so that was our chance to attract students to open new accounts and expand our growing rate %. I was an intern last year but I totally forgot how to do it. Thankfully, the guys there helped me out and from that point onwards it was smooth sailing. I lost track of how many students that opened new accounts. The line keeps on getting longer.....but at 530pm, the queue was gone...whew, it was an exhausting day!!!
Finally, my day was done and I boarded the "RED" bus back to my lovely apartment...

recreational center

This is the place that I frequently go on Friday night with my group of friends. The Recreational Center was closed last week due to maintenance. It was opened on Monday and our last activity for POL's is taking the new international students to this place. In here, people workout, play racquetball, table tennis, or just jogging. However, basketball is the most popular sport here because there are 3 full sized courts for basketball. Today, there were only 2 courts because we use one of the courts for badminton. Surprisingly, soccer had an arena for itself too. Rarely, can you find people playing soccer here because it is not a favourite sport.
Actually, I am not really a basketball fan but that is the only sport that my friends play so I just join in the fun. Today,was sensational because I got involved with soccer and badminton. I can't decide which to play. I love soccer but I miss playing badminton. I know it contradicts but...
To sum things off, I just love playing sports......

I took a few pictures of the place to give you an idea of how it looks like...

ice skating in Goggin

The best part of being a POL is organizing activities for new international students...This year is the first year where we planned ice skating in Goggin arena. It was extremely fun and nearly everybody turned out for this event which was cool. People think that Oxford can be pretty boring sometimes but if you use the things on campus like the Recreational Center or the Goggin arena, you won't be bored. Thankfully, I know how to skate but it would be cooler if I know how to stop. I am bad at stopping, I wish somebody could teach me how to. Anyway, just enjoy the pictures.....

The most important pictures...The group photo of all the POL!!!

Irritated

As you know I am a POL and I assist new international students in Miami University. This year Miami wants to promote diversity. We have a very good partnership with Beijing and Shanghai University. Apparently, this year we have about 100 students from China alone. This is a alarming number. I am not complaining about anything. It is good to see so many new people but I get annoyed when the Chinese people ask this question

Chinese students : Excuse me, Are you from China?
Me : Erm, I am not from China. I am from Malaysia....
Chinese students : From Malaysia?? Can you speak Mandarin????

Then the students mumble in Mandarin...

Me : ????
Chinese students : So you cannot speak Mandarin?
Me : I cannot speak Mandarin but I can listen.
Chinese students : I see....

You might not see any flaw in the conversation above but if you read it properly the discrimination of races come into play. People think that all Asians are categorized as Chinese. I get annoyed because of this. There are so many Asians that does not speak Mandarin. Vietnamese has their own language, Thailand speak Thai, Malaysia speak Malay, Indonesia too. How can you grouped all these people together? If you see a Asian walking on the street in United States, your proper question should sound like this....

Chinese Students: Where are you from?
Me: I am from Malaysia.
Chinese students: Can you speak Mandarin??
Me: A bit...

P.S: Isn't that question more appropriate than the above converstion??? This is not a sarcasm or anything else, but it is just a reminder that Asia is a big country and has many countries in it. China is part of Asia, so it Thailand, Vietnam, Phillipines, Cambodia, HongKong, Singapore and Malaysia too.

Just remember that guys...I rest my case!!!
P.S: I do not mean to offend anyone or anybody that read this. I wrote this on my blog because I want people to realize the significant of other countries around Asia.

Day1

Before I start my duties as POL, I went to Shriver to get breakfast. My usual breakfast is scrambled eggs, hash brown and milk to finish it off. After breakfast, we headed to McGuffy to assist the new international students for orientation. The new international students were divided into different groups led by POL. My first duty was making ID's. The ID card is considered the most "magical' card on campus because it is virtually for everything on campus. We formed a long line all the way from the front towards the door area. As usual, some people are so forgetful that they did not bring their required documents. So, we had to walk all the way back to their dorms to get their stuff. We met in the basement of Flower Hall and then had lunch again in Shriver. Lunch was good because we get to sit around and mingle with people from different countries. Even though many of them are from China, but there are a few people in our group that was from Hong Kong, China, Russia, Germany and Nepal. It is good to see diversity in this school. Then, was the dreadful session of TB test. This test is required for all new international students. I remembered the time when I took it. I had a injection in my left arm but this year it is more advanced. All they need is your blood sample and you are free to go. How cool is that??? The trip to the Health Services took an hour.
We got it done according to the scheduled time and headed towards our last venue, McMillan Hall. International students had to check in there before they are officially a Miami student. That went pretty fast and we were out.
From that point onwards, all of us went our separate ways. Some went to Kroger, some back to Flower others to Uptown. For me, I went back to my apartment to watch Beijing Olympics. ~woohoo~

Go MALAYSIA!!!

1st day of POL

The whole reason I left beautiful Malaysia was because of this orientation. You see, Peer Orientation Leader (POL) assist the new international students that will be enrolling here during the fall semester. I extremely looked forward for this day to come. My first day as a POL goes like this....here the red shirt that I had to wear!!POL is at the front...

Yu Jin at the back....

Waking up at 6am is really a pain..But the "early bird always get the worm" so waking up is a definitely a booster. So obviously I had to wake up because I need to go to Cincinatti airport to pick the new students up.

So we drove down and admire the sunrise, the amazing greenery, the "scenic" cornfield that surrounds Ohio. Throughout the journey, David Keitges (Head of Office of International Education) and me chitchatted about random stuff.

We arrived at Cincy airport and picked 7 international students. Thankfully, nobody lost their luggage or had their plance delayed. Everything was smooth flowing...

Just look at the amount of luggage in the boot of the van...Blows your mind away!!!

Well, what can you expect right??

After checking in at Flower Hall where they are temporary supposed to live, the students had to make international phone call to their parents. That's the magical card right there!!

I took them for a short tour around campus and explained to them about the important places that will be their future classes..The picture here says it all!!

*That is another POL who dutied the same time as me...

~That's me right there!!~

Finally, everybody just back to take a rest. As for me, I will call it a day. Tommorrow will a new day too...excited and pumped up for the new day!!!