The Pancake Review

From now on it’s only appropriate that I identify myself as a Law student. Gives me that kick in the ass, you know. I have to work really hard now.

It’s
really just been another week of pure….boredom. We didn’t have much
to do but sleep around, talk about things we probably would’ve talked
about the last ten minutes and me delving into conversations and asking
questions I normally would NEVER, ever, ask. I’ve made it a
point to finish up on Seige 1942, but so far I’ve only come up till
page..erh…100—-something.  Might be less.. Who knows. I’m too
stoned to tell…We felt sleepy almost all the time, and walking around
is just not my thing. The whole entire week was rubbish basically. They
could’ve let us go home and let us do something more productive with
our time *like watching youtube for instance*.

But I’m pretty
happy. Getting exempted for both English and Computer class is cool. I
was ecstatic. But was quite surprised by how easy it was to get
exempted. Stupid system? Who knows. I’d have to say yes, though. You
can shoot me if you want.

We had a Course Briefing for Laws
today at 1430hrs at AMF Hall. It was…welll…how should I put
it….boring. They just managed to make Law such a bohring
subject when in fact it’s the exact opposite! It’s exciting and full of
adrenaline rush, and that’s what they missed out on when they were
giving us the briefing. A quartet of second year Law students (and one
girl with an ATROCIOUS American slang) reading up the current events on
a projection screen with barely and interesting graphics on it is
really quite mundane to say the least. The Lecturers were…fine I
guess. Would’ve hoped they were more enthusiastic and motivating like
the Indian Law Lecturer from KDU College. I guess that’s where the
perks are *private*. *sigh*. They were basically telling us things we
could read by ourselves and telling us things aspiring Law students
should already take note of, like the top firms (Shearn Delamore, she
mentioned. Good. Finally someone who knows what tha hell that is),
options after the LL.B., and things we have to do as Law Students.
Don’t just say…owh…you have to read. And READ….like your life
depends on it. Yeah. Then you’d be just like all those other dumbfucks
out there. A sarcastic buddy in my head was nagging "No wonder you’re
here for 2 years!". Bad, I know. Fact, it still remains.

I am
kind of annoyed at the overpopulation of Law students, some of which I
know don’t even want to have anything to do with Law. They just like to
talk. Honey, if that’s what you like to do you can be a funfair deejay
for all I care. Just don’t crowd the space. They’re not even serious
and professional about it. They yap and yap and yap nonstop and scream
all of a sudden and are quite blatantly stupid-sounding. What makes me
tick the most I guess is that the fact that they think of Law as an
easy degree and a trash can of sorts. And the fact that they treat it
like on too, that’s worse. Yeah, it might be the easiest to get, but
please. Do me a favor. If you guys wanna treat this stuff like shit, I
suggest ya’ll piss off ASAP.

And again on the English here. Yeah so everyone speaks it, the lecturers and blabla I mean. If their English is like that,
how the hell do you expect the students to improve, man????? Some
seniors have these fake accents (Brit+American, haven’t heard any
futile attempt at Oz. Yet.) which would not have troubled me had they been perfectly emulated with a good sense of grammar and pronunciation. Duuude….So
at times I don’t understand what the big deal is if a Malaysian has an
American or Brit accent or an Oz accent for that matter, because truth
be told the language is not our own, however we Manglicize *phwar!* it,
it’s still an import, therefore it is only natural that we speak it
with a tinge of foreign accent, because that’s what we get from
tv/radio! To make it Malaysian, in most of people’s opinions, is to
detach the accents and make it as plain as possible. Or go easy on the
r’s and t’s. Fine. Again I shall state that I do not fuckin mind if
accents are used as long as they are perfectly executed; grammar,
pronunciation, and intonation etc. This is, I guess, my curse. I can’t
ignore it. It’s a disease….To think about it, an example of
good-sounding Brit accent is from one English lecturer, forgot her
name. Hers sounded like those old-time English teachers who have been
Brit-educated, thus retaining the accents from their teachers, and they
do it ever so well. The stresses on the r’s and t’s and the flow was
flawless, and it made me happy. Sick as that may sound.

Can’t wait to start class, might be next week. The subjects sound cool,
which is good, but in Semester 2 we’ll be learning General Principles
of Law II, which has got Criminal Law in it…YAY!!!!

I’m good for now. Can’t wait to study. I aim for a good 4.0 CGPA. Best of luck to everyone too~~!!!

P/s: If by chance there are any law studnets out there who are reading/passing through, nudge me or somethin will ya. It’d be nice to have people to talk to bout studies and all.

Hello people. For the very purpose of ranting I’m going to try and write a decent and chronological account of my first week at the International Islamic University of Malaysia.

A little background would be nice first and foremost.

I was raring for a Cambridge LL.B and the Cambridge tutorial experience. Hell, Oxford would’ve been pretty okay for me. But it wasn’t to be. So the backup plan was (should I HAVE to end up studying in Malaysia) IIUM Law. And it was my first choice (I’d only filled 4 of the 8 choices) and looking back I could probably say the ONLY tangible choice for me as the other universities don’t strike my fancy. UiTM and its gigantanormous population of Malays; UM for..wellll….the really old campus. IIUM was my only pick as I’m quite familiar with the Main Campus, but I really didn’t know what to expect at the Matriculation Centre in Petaling Jaya. Having my plan of 1.5 years of A-Levels, UCSA applications, LNAT exams, Oxbridge interviews in Malaysia and then a terrific Oxbridge experience for 3 years, summer jobs and internships at the best law firms around there, 9 months chambering, killer dissertations and finally an invaluable degree and a shag-tastic job at the most prominent firms in the UK, slashed and obliterated, I found myself in a state of utter despair, and had to rebuild my future plans from scratch.

Trust me, it was a very long time before I could regain my concentration and thought to figure out how to go about planning a totally different plan. But thank God I did, and I filled up the forms needed, and got on with it. I had an offer to study at the IIUM Matriculation Centre for a year, from July 2006-June 2007, and for 4 semesters which got me quite perplexed at first.

Anyway, I went with a heavy heart. I didn’t wanna leave my family behind (even though it’s only about 30 minutes from Wangsa Melawati to PJ, and I could always go back by LRT…)and my life before, my TV and Blackburn Rovers (we’re going to Europe dammit!!!) and Jussi Jaaskelainen….It was gonna be hard and I’ve been nothing but bitter about everything. Now as I’m writing this I believe my bitterness has somewhat toned down a bit. I’m in the comforts of my home but I’ll hacve to go back at 6pm. Sucks ha?

Registration day on July 2nd was hectic. The Committee members who were really 2nd year students at IIUMMC were nothing but helpful and friendly, they really were. By the time my parents left me there reality somewhat slapped me hard. I’m all alone now…I’ll be on my own. Met my roommates who were really nice people, and shortly after the Ta’aruf (Orientation for you buta Arabic out there….*you too*) program commenced. It was a gruelling week, let me tell you….having only 3 hours of sleep was a killer. When I got home I had rashes and eyebags. The shower and toilet was….clean, but pretty old. I’ve never been a fan of communal stuff. Most of the time we were stinky and sweaty from all the waiting and getting used covering up every damn thing was quite a challenge, but it turned out fine. The food was okay I guess, but we didn’t have enough fibre so I had trouble shitting..somewhat. I was missing home and my family all the time, it was probably the worst thing I had to endure. My friend told me there were some sacrifices I would have to make in order to succeed. And this was one of them.

On the third day I guess we had an English Placement Test. I wasn’t too scared about it in particular, but when they told me the English test is going to determine how long the program will be I was panicking. My head’s pretty stupid after 5 months of not doing anything. Then testing day came. It was okay. I think I butchered the argumentative essay. It wasn’t up to my own standards, but I hope that the examiner won’t mind too much on the contents. I hope they’ll only look for grammatical errors and all those technical stuff. I think I had the name of the founder of Apple company wrong. But I hope he/she doesn’t know better. It’s always important to cheat with confidence if you want to cheat or lie. Hah,. At the VERY LEAST, I got his first name right. Steve. Steve Bloom, I wrote. But it was STEVE JOBS!! dammit! Hahahahaha…

But anyways, I hope I got high marks and get called in for the interview, and the listening/speaking test majiggy….and Insyaallah…get an exemption. Arabic was easy….easy peasy….it only took me 5 minutes hahahhahahahahha~~~~~!!!

Another thing, now I’m in Mahallah Khadijah, or Khadijah College if you will. It was a former hospital building (largest college in the campus) and everyone dubs it Kingdom Hospital, for reasons I think you’d already figured out. Apparently it’s the most haunted building. And that got me really scared, so one Friday night my roommates and I recited Yaasin and some prayers for His protection; against things our naked eyes can’t see and from humans who wish to do harm. I have to say, I slept better that night, as did everyone else.

I was quite traumatized by the appalling English. The professors and the big people..all of them. The only two people whose English struck a good chord with me were Sister Nani Abdul Rahman and Associate Professor Muhammad Arif Zakaullah. Sister Nani in particular was very very inspirational in her speech…duh. She is my role model for now~~~graduating with a 3.9 CGPA and the Best Speaker at som tournament in Vienna and having the opportunity to dine at the the same as the people from the WTO….that is just..beyond amazing. She is my idol. I want to be just like her, if not better, Insyaallah.

I only have 2 hours ++ before I have to leave home for IIUMMC….hell….aaargh. I’ll be getting the EPT results back on the 11th. Wish me luck that I get called in for the 12th, and get an exemption.