I figured this is the third week I'm here, here as in being a postgraduate student in UKM, Bangi. a lot of things happened. no kidding, really a lot of things happened. from the first day i stepped into here.
and i have a lot of stuff to tell.
fret not, i'll not bored you with every details but here's a few of the highlights:
before that, there are four of us, USMKK's alumnus, F, Q, A and myself.
1. The Residential College:
here's the thing, if you're planning to further your study at UKM as postgraduate students either in masters or Ph. D , know that you're not automatically given the hostel or residential college as what they're known here. you've to figure it out yourself. usually, the given college for postgrad are two colleges, Kolej Pendeta Zaa'ba and Kolej Keris Mas. these two college have the highest rate among all of the colleges here, because they have many facilities compared to the others (ATM, photostat and printing services, mini groceries shop and much larger cafeteria). the rate is rm6 for double room and rm7 for single room.
so, my friend (F) and I, we don't have any single idea of what forthcoming us, so on the second day of registration day, we registered at Zaa'ba since it's closer to our faculty compared to Keris Mas ( i tell you, you've to go in/out of the entrance gate no 3 to get to my faculty, imagine that).
AND being me, I asked for a single room, whether it's available or not and the lady at the counter told me and F that at Zaa'ba they don't have single rooms. Inside my head I was like, REALLY? no single room in this very large college? but since I'm as new as a newborn, I shut up and be grateful of whatever room she gave. then, she put me and F in a same room, and that's a big NO NO for us. okay, first of all we don't have any problems or we are not fighting with each other, it's just it's really uncomfortable for me to be sharing the room with my course mates. no privacy, and how boring would that be because all day everyday you're going to see the same person. going to classes you see her, then going back to your room you would also see her. imagine that.
so we asked to be given different room, no matter even it's neighboring room as long a not in the same room. and here's what the lady replied.
'mana boleh macam tu, bilik ni terhad dik, awak nak ke tanak bilik ni? kalau tanak saya bagi dekat orang lain je la'
ookaayy lady. you succeed big time.
we settled into our room. a small room. i kid you not, the room is a lot smaller than what I used to have in USM. with much much cheaper price. (I miss you, USMKK)
small room, with small cupboards, worn out mattress, and best of all, no window grill at all.
so F and I, of course we're not happy, living in a same room with zero privacy, we ultimately pressed our fellow neighbors asking whether they wanted to change room-mates or not. and of course, no one wants.
because of the dirty room, we decided to explore the hostels to search for a prayer room. we went upstairs and guess what we discovered, a freaking SINGLE ROOM,located at every wing of each level.
huh, lady, you LIED to us.
and there's no prayer room available.
I miss USMKK.
so, we settled down by cleaning the floor to pray and unpacked a little bit. chit-chatting and we ultimately decided that tomorrow we have to go to the office asking about the single room.
the next day, we filled out the form to change room. they asked us to wait for another week for the results.
the third day, we attend the classes, and class ends early at 11 ++ am, so F forever being the initiator, laying out the plan to go to Keris Mas college, to ask whether there's still rooms available whether single room or double room provided with different room mates. this time Q tagged along as she's done registering yesterday. A has not registered yet.
Keris Mas college is a lot better than Zaa'ba. 100 % better. new buildings, clean and organized cafeteria and a sophisticated administration office.
we asked for any available rooms and the answer is of course NO. i get it that they' re giving the priority to undergraduate student who have second intakes and also for their current students. hopes crashed.
but the counter lady was so kind. she told us the key information to go to PUSANIKA (sort of UKM's student centre) and asked the HEP people there of the current status of each of the residential college.
we took the shuttle bus and went there. Q went to the post office while F and I went to the HEP counter and asked the ladies there.
guess what, they told us,just minutes ago, Kolej Burhanuddin Helmi (K. BH) phoned them and told that there are TWO single rooms available. we were like freaking out in front of them and my heart starts beating faster.
is this the sign for us?
then F called K. BH and she confirmed that the rooms are still available but we have to make a confirmation that day as they can't reserved the room for us. she told us that we've to ask for pelepasan to get out of the hostel.
I called Zaa'ba's office asking permission for them to 'let us go' or sort of pelepasan for us to get out of the hostel. and, the lady who answered the call said they CAN'T let us go. they're applying a new system where students could not easily hopping from another college as it gives them SO MUCH problems.
like what is exactly their problems? it's not like they have to help us moving our stuff, not like they have to pay for us or like their salary will get cut off just because a student wanted to get out of the hostel.
so MUCH alasan, Miss.
I figured that she's not easy so I hardened up and told her I want out today because I got another college and BH wanted the confirmation ASAP.
she told me they would not let us go etc etc. and started blabbering about why students would always wanted to get out of the college so easily, why not being grateful that they've given us a place to stay etc. she asked me why before registering at Zaaba I did not survey all of the college for the availability.
I said to her, okay, first of all, students want to have the 'comfortable-ness' for them to stay in as they freaking pay for it. i didn't get it with Zaa'ba hostel, as I asked for single room they told me to wait a week after whereby BH doesn't have any problems at all to give that room to us. and as for the surveying other colleges I told her that I'm not a former student of UKM, I know nothing of it and the system. how could I be surveying all of that.
I guess that makes sense to her so she started rattling out that IF I really wanted OUT then, tomorrow morning, come to the office to check out and be prepared for the cost of the charge which summed up to rm188 for 4 days of checking in.
it's freaking EXPENSIVE! but whatever, as long as I get the way out.
then, we headed to K.BH to confirmed and it's DONE. the lady told us to come tomorrow ASAP after checking out from Zaa'ba.
out of pity for Q who tagged along, we asked the lady whether there' s another room available for her, and unfortunately, none available.
Q left her phone no. in case of any of the residents decided to leave the hostel.
then, we prayed at the prayer room at the office and while duduk-duduk waiting for 'Asar, Q's phone rings. she answered.
turns out it's from the lady before, telling she that there's another one room available for her. my eyes literally was like this. O___O
Alhamdulillah, Allah's present to us is indeed amazing.
we went back at Zaa'ba happily.
that night. we packed all of our stuff.
cut story short, we checked out the next morning, checking in at K. BH , checking up on our room (which is very organized, clean, new mattress, window grill, have tikar getah, so much privacy!), went back to Zaa'ba to get all the stuff, waiting for the taxi, and officially entering our room at 4pm.
Alhamdulillah Alhamdulillah.
our hard work pays off big time.
unfortunately, my friend A who registered late is still stuck at Zaa'ba.
while the three of us are currently residing at Burhanuddin.
and have I told you that it takes about 10 minutes of walking to our faculty. no more riding the bus only to go to classes. YEAY!
AND also, the rate is rm6 for single room which is the same as Zaaba's double room.
:")
2. Rengit Shuttle Bus.
in every main campus, no matter USM, UKM, UITM, UM etc, the shutlle bus is an important element for student's to commute anywhere within the university area. in UKM, Rengit bus hold that importance.
the bus is available for every 30 minutes.
this is the first time ever for me as USMKK is a small uni campus where every place is within walking distance. no need to worry for transportation. but here, oh NO. you have to worry about transport.
so it's a very big deal for me to being able to go to class without depending much on the bus. (you have to wake up earlier, getting ready earlier just to catch the bus!)
my experience of riding the bus comprises of many funny incidents.
-we took the wrong bus to get back to hostel and ended up on the bus going to KTM station. plus this happens at NIGHT! mind you that the bus services ends at 11pm everyday. realizing that we've taken the wrong bus once the bus went through the entrance gate to GO OUT, we coolly walked out of the bus and walked into the UKM. yes, walked.
- one thing with the bus system here, they don't put the route map of the bus of which bus is going there, which bus is not. so new students like me have to ask people every time we wanted to go anywhere. is it really that hard to put up a route map in every bus stand as a guide. imagine the disabled people who couldn't talk, in what way would they be able to ride the bus if they couldn't ask people. just put up a route map, the problem is solved in a blink of an eye.
- there were a couple of times we took the wrong bus. well, i take it as experiences for us. it's a learning process. make mistakes and you learn from it.
nevertheless, the services is quite good, they provided bus to KTM station and also RAPID bus to go to Kajang town is also available.
3. Classes
fortunately, i only have three days of classes on Wednesday till Friday. that means I would have a LONG weekend. my classmates comprises of majorly working people. I have one who works at Nuclear Malaysia Agency with nearly 10 years experience(how awesome is that!) , lecturers from UNISEL, KLMU, UIA , an RPO, Tutors, Radiographers and we, fresh graduates.
It's going to be fun. we got to know a lot of things from them. broadening your horizon is never a bad thing.
and also this is an opportunity for us to widen our contact lists with promising background to make it easy for us to apply for jobs later.
*wink wink*
4. University System
I'm used to USM's system where everything is linked within one system. with one card you could access everywhere but in here, no, every student have two cards, college card and faculty card(for students living here la, if staying outside UKM then only one card).
because they are a very large campus so I think it's almost impossible for them to control everything within one system. I think I can understand that. the downside is you have to have many accounts, internet account, student's email account, student's card account, student's info account, library account etc. which is different on its own. it's a headache's cause.
luckily they don't apply the card usage for the bus system.
left: college card ; right: faculty card
5. Library
the library is so HUGE. freaking huge! this one I love. a university with so many resources in its library is a great one to keep. and it's so organized. I like everything that's organized. shows how much effort you put in. A+.
I can't wait to explore the library in my free time.
all in all I think registering at UKM for its postgraduate program is not a mistake and it's safe to say I'm looking forward for a year of studying here.
phew, this is a very long post. it's been awhile.
:)
till next post.
p/s: current ❤ : Noah's Seperti Seharusnya and G Dragon's One Of A Kind albums.
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