Ramadhan Mubarak and new beginnings
Wishing all of my Muslim brothers and sisters Ramadhan Mubarak… It has been two days since my dad left London for Malaysia and my life away began. I know I blog as often as a lunar eclipse, but I feel it is time to begin where I left off last time; with intentions and resolutions, and (hopefully) end with implementation. I only wish I had done this sooner; that my time with my family would have yielded something to remember them by. Then the P.O.D song played on Winamp, "Goodbye For Now".
I took the tube for the first time this morning… alone. Really, it was not difficult, but I was nervous to begin with. It took me 20 minutes to get from Bayswater to Euston Square. I allowed for 1 hour and came to UCL with plenty of time to spare, time which, as it turned out, I would need to find the lecture theater I was supposed to go to. Univeristy life is starting to get pretty complicated, and I don’t mean socially. I have always been an introvert, and will continue to be so, even if it doesn’t seen as such. What I mean is the massive, complicated, intricate behemoth that is UCL that is creating complications. Yes, it is a compact site, but it’s also more complicated than Kampung Baru. But I rarely get lost anymore.
Even in Day 2 I have yet to feel homesick. Is it a flaw, a disorder not to feel this? I feel very dehumanised, like one of Asimov’s robots. R.Syamil. Some people find that it is better not to feel homesick. I don’t know… I would think it would be comforting to have such a yearning for home, as twisted and convoluted as this may sound. Bear with me, my thoughts take me further. Homesickness is part and parcel of a person’s memories and experiences of home. It signifies a deep sense of attachment to our roots and origins. Does that then mean that I do not have such an attachment? I have always thought otherwise; that I my bonds to my home and family were strong. That is exactly why I question why I don’t feel homesick.
The life is slowly accellerating… Uni courses are now starting in ernest, with last week and the week before serving as ’settling period’. I only wish that I had made better use of that time. So far there has been no homework (apart from our optional "Write an essay on ANY topic. Min 4 paragraphs") which, at first, sounded like a bloody joke to me (moi, a literature student used to writing pages and pages for essays). However, our tutor did promise that the best essay will win it’s author some new (and expensive: >50 pounds) testbooks, so I’m in. The problem is what exactly to write about.
Apart from little quirks here and there, I actually think I’m settling in quite nicely. My place isn’t exactly luxurious, but at 150 pounds A MONTH it’s a bargain. True, I’m sharing a room, but we have our own bathroom, and loads of nice facillities. And all my housemates are Malaysian… Maybe that’s why I don’t feel so homesick. Transport should cost around 80 pounds a month, but the net result is still cheaper than uni accomodation. Let the studies begin then…
