In 2014, I had 4 months of summer break between 22 May 2014 which was the last day of my A2 Level examination and 22 September 2014 which was my first day of study at Newcastle University Medicine Malaysia. Many interesting events happened during that 4 months. Here, I am going to write about those events.
Actually, before the break I wasn't looking forward for the A2 level examination to end, in fact I felt sad about that. This was because the end of the exam also marked the end of my college life at Taylor's College and I would have to separate with my college friends. However, in turned out that my college friends and I often had outings after the examination, so we were not separated after the examination and life after examination was far more interesting that what I had expected earlier.
22 May 2014 (Thursday):
It was the last day of my A2 level examination. I had lunch with my friends at a restaurant near Taylor's College before the exam started. The paper on that day was Physics Paper 5. It was quite easy and I was confident of scoring high marks for this paper. After the exam ended, I went to Sunway Pyramid with my friends. We have planned this one day earlier. One of my friend drove me there. We watched the movie X-Men: Days of Future Past at TGV Cinemas in Sunway Pyramid. That was the first time in my life where I went to a cinema. Initially, I wasn't interested to watch the movie since I never really liked English movies before that.
However, it turned out that the movie was very interesting and I enjoyed watching it very much. The movie was about a person being sent back to the past from the future in order to stop someone from doing a mistake which later destroyed the world. After the movie ended, my friends and I had dinner at Bubba Gump Restaurant in Sunway Pyramid. There, we had a farewell party for one of our friends who would be going back to his home town in Miri, Sarawak soon. That was also the first time I went to that restaurant and the food there was quite tasty. After that, our outing was over and my parents came and fetch me home. After returning home, I started relaxing since the examination was over.
23 May 2014 (Friday):
Actually, even though the examination was already over at that time, I still couldn't really relax because of 2 important things. First, I would be attending the interview for International Medical University (IMU) on 29 May 2014, so I had to make some preparation for it. Second, I had to write the personal statement for my application to Newcastle University Medicine (NUMed) Malaysia, and I wanted to finish writing it and submit the application as soon as possible before the places get filled up. But, since it was only the second day after the examination ended, I was too lazy to do anything. Earlier, I asked one of my friend who is very good at writing personal statements to help me in writing my personal statement for NUMed Malaysia and she agreed. On that day, she asked me if I had written the personal statement. I told her that I hadn't write it yet because I felt lazy after the examination. She replied that she wanted see it latest by 25 May. I then planned to write it on 25 May itself.
25 May 2014 (Sunday):
On that night, I and my parents had dinner at Fatty Crab Restaurant. At that time, it was the finals of the 2014 Thomas Cup between Malaysia and Japan. When we were on the way to the restaurant, the 1st singles match was aired through the radio and we listened to it. Malaysia won the 1st singles. Then when we were at the restaurant, the television there was showing the 1st doubles match followed by the 2nd singles match but we were not able to watch it because our table was quite far away from the television. We could only hear other customers cheering. Later, I found out through the internet that disappointingly Malaysia lost the 1st doubles and 2nd singles.
When I returned home, the 2nd doubles match had just started and I watched it on the television. It was a very exciting match and eventually Malaysia won the 2nd doubles. Malaysia and Japan were tied at 2-2 so the 3rd singles would be the decisive match. Again, the 3rd singles match was very exciting. Unfortunately, at last Malaysia lost the 3rd singles so Japan defeated Malaysia with a score of 3-2. Japan became the champion of the 2014 Thomas Cup while Malaysia was the runner-up. I felt quite disappointed about that, considering that Malaysia worked so hard to make it to the finals. I am sure most Malaysians felt the same. Earlier I had planned to write the personal statement for NUMed Malaysia on that night, but I didn't because I watched the Thomas Cup finals.
26 May 2014 (Monday):
On that morning, I started writing my personal statement for NUMed Malaysia. By afternoon, I had finished writing the first draft and I sent it to my friend. My friend said that it was a great improvement compared to the personal statement I had written for my UCAS application previously but it was still not good enough because there were many grammatical errors and it was too long. She then gave me some guidance on how to improve it. Under her guidance, I changed a part of the personal statement every day.
27 May 2014 (Tuesday):
Even though my examination was over at that time, some of my friends still had exams because they retook the AS level Biology. On that day, it was the AS Biology Paper 3. I went to college on that day to meet up with them because we have planned to play board games after their exam. I also invited a few of my friends who did not retake AS Biology to join us. When I arrived at the college, their exam hadn't started yet and I gave them some tips on the exam. I stayed at the learning hub of my college for a few hours during their exam. Then after their exam ended, my friends and I had lunch together at a restaurant near our college.
After lunch, I played board games with my friends. Initially, we planned to play at the Meeples European board game cafe near our college. However, it was quite expensive and one of my friend had brought some board games to college. So, we decided to play the board games he brought at the learning hub of our college. We played 2 board games which were Bang! and Dixit for a few hours. At 6PM, I had to leave although my friends would only be leaving about half an hour later because my mother had came to fetch me. My mother took me for dinner before returning home.
28 May 2014 (Wednesday):
My interview for IMU would be on the next day, so on that day I made some preparation for it. I searched on the Internet for the questions that were commonly asked during the previous interviews for IMU as well as the tips for attending medical school interviews. I prepared the answers for the commonly asked interview questions. I also memorised some parts of my personal statement for NUMed Malaysia as they could be used to answer the interview questions.
29 May 2014 (Thursday):
My interview for IMU was on that day but there was also a briefing about the JPA scholarship for students under the MOE Bursary at my college on that day. I could still attend the briefing because it was in the morning while my interview was in the afternoon. My father took me to the college in the morning. Before the briefing started, I met up with one of my friend at college and spent some time with her. The briefing was held at the lecture theatre 1 of my college. During the briefing, the officers from JPA explained about the steps we had to do in order to get the scholarship. They also showed us the latest list of universities for the JPA scholarship. The latest list of universities for Medicine course included many more universities in UK and Australia. I had to leave early before the briefing ended in order to attend the interview for IMU. Luckily, when I left the briefing, the JPA officers had finished their speech and it was the question-answer session.
My father fetched me at my college and took me to IMU. I felt quite nervous before attending the interview. At IMU, I waited for a short while before the interview started. Two of my friends also attended the interview at the same time as me and I talked to them while waiting. The interview was held in one of the rooms at the 2nd floor of IMU. There were 2 interviewers, who were 1 Chinese woman and 1 Indian woman. The interview was not difficult. I was asked the usual interview questions and many of the questions were similar to those that I have found on the internet earlier. The only question that was a bit difficult was a question on ethical scenario. The interview lasted for about 20 minutes. After the interview, I had lunch at the cafeteria in IMU before returning home. Although I felt that I performed quite well during the interview, I was not too confident of being offered a place at IMU. The reason was because I was rejected by Perdana University about one month ago after attending its interview and I also thought that I performed quite well during the interview for Perdana.
30 May 2014 (Friday):
According to what I have read on the internet, the outcome of the IMU application would usually be out one day after the interview. Therefore, I was quite worried and nervous on that day. Although I have heard of rumours that the interview isn't an important factor in the selection process of IMU, still there were cases where students with excellent examination results were rejected by IMU due to poor interview performance. If I was rejected by IMU, it would mean that my interview skills is really poor and it was highly likely that I would also be rejected by NUMed Malaysia later. So, whether or not I got the offer from IMU would mean a great difference to me. I kept praying that I would be offered a place by IMU, and I was even willing to give up 4A* in A Level in exchange for that because at that point I realised that there is no use getting the best examination results if I fail to be offered a place for Medicine. On that day, I kept going to the website for the IMU application to check if the application outcome was out. However, the application outcome was not yet out on that day. That made me feel even more worried.
31 May 2014 (Saturday):
Since it was the weekend, I thought that the IMU office must be closed and the outcome of the application would only be out earliest on Monday. Out of my expectation, I received a phone call from IMU. The person on the line said that he telephoned me because of my application. He spoke in a serious tone which made me feel even more nervous. Then, he told me that I have been offered a place at IMU. He said that they would e-mail me the offer letter a few days later and he asked me if I also applied to other universities. I lied to him that I only applied to IMU because I was afraid that they might withdraw my offer if they knew that I also applied to other universities, especially when I still haven't received the offer letter at that time.
I felt very happy and relieved about that. For the first time I received an offer to study Medicine. At the same time, since IMU is in the list of universities for the JPA scholarship, I would be sponsored by the JPA scholarship. There was nothing else that I had to worry about, because even if later I was rejected by NUMed Malaysia and other universities, I could still study Medicine at IMU. Of course, I would still apply to NUMed Malaysia. Later on that day, I and my parents went back to Kulim for one night because we wanted to go to Penang on the next day to visit my mother-side grandfather who was earlier hospitalised due to kidney stone. In Kulim, I also told my grandparents that IMU had offered me a place and they were very happy.
1 June 2014 (Sunday):
On that morning, I and my parents visited my mother-side grandfather in Penang. At that time, he had recovered and was already discharged from the hospital. We had breakfast with him at one of the restaurant in Penang. My parents told him that I would be studying Medicine at IMU. Later on that day, I followed my parents back to Subang Jaya. I did not stay in Kulim because I and my friends had planned to have outings on the following week and I also had to get a reference letter from my college in order to apply to NUMed Malaysia. The traffic on the North-South Expressway was very bad on that day so it took us about 8 hours to get back to Subang Jaya.
3 June 2014 (Tuesday):
On that day, it was the AS Chemistry Paper 3 and one of my friend retook the AS level Chemistry. Again, I went to college to meet up with him and I also invited my other friends to come to college to play board games after his exam, just like on 27 May earlier. Actually, they did not confirm that they would come but I just assumed that they would. It turned out that none of them came because they were busy. I still met up with my friend who retook the exam and gave him some tips on the exam before his exam started. Then, I went to the office of my college to request for a reference letter for my application to NUMed Malaysia. Later on that day, I received the IMU offer letter through e-mail and I printed it out using the printer in the college library. I was a bit disappointed because I did not get to play board games with my friends on that day. However, on that night my friends told me that they would be celebrating someone's birthday on the following day and they invited me to join them. Of course I agreed.
4 June 2014 (Wednesday):
I went to college at noon to meet up with my friends because we would be celebrating one of our friend's birthday. We stayed at the library because we did not want her to see us since it was a surprise celebration. There, every one of us wrote a message on a birthday card to be given to her. We also prepared a surprise for her. At the same time, we collected our tickets for the Taylor's College Prom Night from one of our friends. After that, we surprised her at the college learning hub with the birthday cake and birthday song. Then, we went to Myburgerlab for dinner. It was located in Seapark, Petaling Jaya which is quite far away from my college. We went there in a few cars and a few of my friends drove. That was the first time where I went to Myburgerlab and the burger there was quite delicious. After dinner, we went to The Humble Pie for desert. It was located in Section 17, Petaling Jaya and I have also never been there before. I ordered cheesecake there.
After that, we went back to the college and that was the end of our outing on that day. I stayed in my college learning hub with one of my friend (who earlier gave me advice on writing the personal statement for NUMed Malaysia) for an hour because her parents would only be fetching her one hour later. At that time, I asked her for advice on improving my personal statement for NUMed Malaysia and she was able to advise me on that face-to-face which is more effective than through the internet. Therefore, I was able to make a lot of changes to the personal statement during that hour. There was still some minor changes that I had to make and she said that she would advise me on that on the next day through Facebook. After that, my father took me home. However, after returning home I realised that I had left my ticket for the prom night in the learning hub. Luckily, my friend saw it and she kept it. My outing with my friends on that day was really interesting and I hoped to have another one soon.
5 June 2014 (Thursday):
On that day, with the advice from my friend, I finished making all the necessary changes to my personal statement for NUMed Malaysia. My friend told me that my personal statement was good enough to be submitted. I sent the application form together with the personal statement through e-mail to NUMed. Then, I also informed my college that I had submitted the application so that they could send the reference letter to NUMed. However, it was already past 5PM when I sent the application form so the NUMed office had already closed. Therefore, they did not reply me on that day. I expected that they would reply on the next day.
6 June 2014 (Friday):
I was waiting for the reply from NUMed Malaysia on that day. On that morning, I received an e-mail where its subject line says 'NUMed Malaysia'. I was happy because I thought that NUMed had replied me. However, it turned out that the e-mail was actually sent by UCAS to advertise for NUMed and it had nothing to do with my application. It was just a coincidence that the e-mail was sent at that time. I felt disappointed about that. Later in that afternoon, UCAS sent me the same e-mail once more and that again made me feel disappointed. Eventually, NUMed did not reply me about my application on that day. Since the following days were the weekend, the NUMed office must be closed so it was likely that they would only reply me earliest on Monday. I also decided that I would telephone them to ask about that if they still did not reply me on Monday.
9 June 2014 (Monday):
On that day, I went to college to meet up with my friends because one of my friend who was organising our class trip to Redang Island in July would be giving us a briefing about that. I went to college in the morning but the briefing was in the afternoon, so I was alone in the college for some time. At that time, I finally received a reply from NUMed Malaysia. However, they stated in the e-mail that they had not yet received my reference letter. Maybe my college office forgot to send it to them. Since I was in the college, I decided to get the reference letter from the office and send it to NUMed by myself. However, the person in charge was on leave at that time and her colleague said that she would only be back on the next day.
Later, one of my friend arrived at college. Since there was still some time before the briefing, he decided to go to the gym at Wisma Subang Jaya near our college and invited me to follow him there. While I have been to gyms before, this was the first time I went to the gym at Wisma Subang Jaya. After that, we went back to the college and my other friends had also arrived. However, at the time where the briefing was supposed to begin, our friend who organised the class trip still had not arrived and we were waiting for her. My friends were hungry so we decided to have lunch first at PappaRich near our college. Later, the organiser of the class trip finally arrived and she met us at PappaRich. The briefing was quite short. She told us about the activities that we would be carrying out at Redang Island. She also asked us to bank-in a sum of money to one of our friend within 2 days and gave us the back account number. After that, all my friends left because they were busy in that afternoon.
Later in the afternoon, NUMed sent me another e-mail which stated that I had been shortlisted for interview. They stated that the interview would be conducted within one month and they would inform me the exact interview date and time in due course. Therefore, they must have received the reference letter from my college. That was the first time where I was shortlisted for interview for Medicine by a UK university, even though it is the Malaysia campus. This showed that the personal statement really played an important role in the university's selection process and the personal statement I wrote under my friend's advice was a good one. Earlier, I was rejected by all the 4 UK universities that I applied to for Medicine course because my UCAS personal statement was poor. Therefore, I really thank my friend for her help. However, I was not very confident of getting an offer from NUMed because I still had to attend the interview which is likely to be difficult since it is a UK university.
11 June 2014 (Wednesday):
Earlier on 4 June, I accidentally left my ticket for the Taylor's College Prom Night in the learning hub of my college and my friend kept it. So on that day, I went to college to meet up with her to get my ticket back from her. After getting the ticket, I had lunch with her at one of the restaurants near our college. Then, I spent some time with her at college. My mother came and fetch me at 2PM. After fetching me, my mother took me to IMU to pay the deposit of RM25110. I was required to pay it before 13 June, otherwise my offer from IMU would be withdrawn. Even though at that time I had not decided to study at IMU, I still paid the deposit because IMU had stated that the deposit would be refunded in full if I later received a full scholarship to study in another university and the JPA scholarship meets this criteria. I also submitted the documents that were required by IMU.
12 June 2014 (Thursday):
On that day, I received a phone call from NUMed Malaysia. They asked me if I could attend the interview on 17 June. I was unable to attend the interview on that day because I would be attending the BTN camp at that time so I told them about that. Actually, I had stated in the application form for NUMed that I would not be able to attend the interview from 16 to 20 June. They then told me that it was alright and they would reshedule my interview to another date, but they did not tell me the new date for my interview.
13 June 2014 (Friday):
The Taylor's College Prom Night 2014 was on that night. It was held at Renaissance Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. I arrived quite early and my friends were not yet there at that time. Many of my friends attended it but a few did not. Earlier, I had expected the prom night to be quite interesting, but it turned out to be not as interesting as what I had expected. During the prom night, food was served and there were performances on the stage for us to watch. The food was quite tasty, but the performances were not very interesting to watch and none of my friends was involved in them. There was also a quiz where they asked a few questions including a Mathematics question and those who answered it correctly could get prizes. However, for most questions only those who sat near to the stage had the opportunity to answer since they always reached the stage first. I never got the chance to answer since my table was quite far away from the stage.
At the end of the prom night, my friends and I took photographs. We took group photos as well two-person photos. I took photographs with almost every one of my college friends and also with one of my secondary school friend who entered Taylor's College in July 2013. There was also a photobooth where we could get a hard copy of the photos taken on the spot for free. We spent more than an hour taking photographs. After that, my parents took me home. For me, the only part of the prom night that was very interesting was taking photographs with my friends at the end. Therefore, I still enjoyed attending it.
16 June 2014 (Monday) - 20 June 2014 (Friday):
I attended the 5 days 4 nights BTN camp during that time. It was held at Kem Bina Negara Meru, Klang. Attending the BTN camp was required for all JPA scholars who wanted to study overseas. At that time, I was already rejected by all the UK universities that I applied to, but the University of Hong Kong (HKU) still had not replied me, so I still had the chance to study in Hong Kong. Therefore, I attended the camp just because of HKU. I felt quite sad and depressing before attending the camp, due to 2 reasons. First, it was because of the camp. Even before attending it, I knew that I would not enjoy it because it was something like PLKN (National service) and I was also afraid that I could not cope with the life there. Second, I felt sad after the Taylor's College Prom Night because it gave the feeling that I and my friends would be separated after that. Even though we still had the class trip to Redang Island in July, my friends did not plan any outings before the trip, so the trip might be the next and last time that I could be together with my friends. At that time, my greatest hope was that the BTN camp would end as soon as possible and that I could have an outing with my friends right after the BTN camp.
On 16 June, my mother took me to college in the morning. I brought along a luggage with me. All students who would be attending the camp were required to assemble at the college learning hub at noon. I only knew 2 of them whom I first met during the the Perdana University interview earlier. None of my classmates attended the camp. After taking our attendance, we were asked to walk to the bus stop near our college and board the bus. The bus took us to Kem Bina Negara Meru. When we arrived there, we were first given a briefing about the camp. The rules there were quite strict, and that was something that I did not like. Luckily, they did not forbid the use of phones and tablets. Then, we were assigned to our hostel rooms. My hostel room had 8 double beds with 16 mattresses, but there were only 9 students including me. All of them chose to sleep on the upper deck, but I chose to sleep on the lower deck. The hostel room was not very comfortable. It had fans but of course no air-conditioner. The good thing about my hostel room was that it was located just next to the hall, so it was very convenient to get to the hall. The bathrooms were quite clean, but there was no water heater. The surrounding environment of the camp was not comfortable because it is located in a very isolated area and the facilities in the camp were poor.
The first activity started after dinner on the first night. Every day, we had to sleep after 12AM and wake up before 7AM. We were given 3 meals and 3 tea times a day. We had a short break after lunch and dinner every day where we could go back to our hostel to rest and also take our bath. There were 4 sessions of activities each day. On the 1st and 2nd day, we had to listen to speeches. The speeches were mainly about the politics, economy and social conditions of our country. It was quite boring listening to the speeches, but the good thing was that we did not have to do anything other than listening. On the 3rd and 4th day, there were group activities, and I was in Group 9. The group activities included debates and discussions. They were more interesting than listening to speeches. However, I did not like someone in my group. He was a Chinese boy from Taylor's College Sri Hartamas. He seemed to look down on me and pick on my weakness just because I was quite quiet and had very few friends during the camp. He also brought up some sensitive issues during the group activities which was inappropriate.
Besides, there was an assembly every morning and recreational activities every evening. During the assembly, we had to march. Marching is an activity that I hated very much. In fact, throughout primary and secondary school, I never marched before and I never took part in any uniformed units. Some of the students there also never marched before so the trainers taught us the basics. It was not too difficult for me to march, but I still hated it because I felt that it was just a waste of time and energy. While many think that marching can develop discipline, I strongly disagree because I think that marching can only train people to follow orders, while 'discipline' and 'following orders' are two completely different things. There was no recreational activities in the 1st evening. In the 2nd evening, they let play games and we had competition between groups. However, in the 3rd and 4th evening, instead of recreational activities, we had to undergo a form of military training known as the 'Gerak Wira'. They told us that it was the government's requirement that we undergo that. It was not difficult, except that there were many steps. I didn't enjoy it, but at least I didn't hate it unlike marching. All the activities there, including recreational activities, meals and tea times were compulsory for us to attend.
In the beginning, I felt that I should talk to every one and avoid being antisocial. However, I soon realised that since I did not enjoy the BTN camp, it would be an experience that is not worth to be remembered. I was always looking forward for the camp to end. So, there was no point for me to make friends there. Even if I did, the friendship would not last long. Therefore, I did not an effort to really talk to or get to know anyone there. Only when others talk to me first, I would reply them but even then, I only gave short replies and I did not try to keep the conversation going. Consequently, I only made 2 friends there, both were staying in the same hostel room as me. I also did not contribute much during the group activities. That was also why the boy in my group looked down on me. On 17 June when I was at the camp, I received a phone call from NUMed Malaysia. They asked me if I was able to attend the interview on 25 June and I told them that could attend. Then, they told me that unlike the previous years, the interview for my year would only be conducted at the NUMed campus in Nusajaya, Johor and not anywhere else. They gave me the option to interview through Skype if I could not travel to Johor. However, I was not familiar with using Skype and I preferred to be interviewed face-to-face so I chose to travel to Johor for the interview and they agreed.
On the last day of the camp, there was an examination which tested on what we have learnt in the camp. All of us were given a book on the first day that we could use to do revision for the exam. The exam questions were not difficult and I was very confident to pass it. We had to pass both the examination and the group activities in order to pass the BTN camp. Those who failed the BTN camp would not be able to study overseas under the JPA scholarship. After the examination, there was a closing session. Then, the BTN camp finally ended at noon. The buses had arrived there to take us back to Taylor's College. I was so happy at that time because the camp had ended. My mother fetched me from college and took me for lunch before returning home. I told her about the NUMed interview and she agreed to take me to Johor. In overall, I did not enjoy the BTN camp. Although some of the activities such as group activities were interesting, there were 4 things that ruined my experience at the camp: first, the surrounding environment there which was not comfortable; second, the strict rules there; third, marching; and fourth, the person in my group who looked down on me.
22 June 2014 (Sunday):
I was hoping to have an outing with my friends on 21 or 22 June after the BTN camp ended. I asked my friends about that through Whatsapp. However, they were not free on those days so we could not have an outing. I felt disappointed. But later, one of my friend told me that they would celebrating one of our friends birthday on 25 June and invited me to join them. I really wanted to join them but I could not because my interview for NUMed Malaysia would be on that day. I asked my friend if the birthday celebration could be changed to any other day and she said that she had to ask the others first. Later on that day, she told me that they had changed the date to 24 June. I felt very happy because I could join my friends and I thanked her. At least my wish of having an outing with my friends after the BTN camp did come true, even though it was a few days later.
24 June 2014 (Tuesday):
My interview for NUMed Malaysia would be on the next day, so on that day I made some preparation for it. I searched on the internet for the commonly asked questions during the previous inteviews for NUMed Malaysia and Newcastle University UK. I also searched for the general tips for attending medical school interviews. Then, I prepared the answers for the common interview questions. At the same time, I looked through my personal statement for NUMed and memorised some parts of it as it was likely that I would be asked questions based on my personal statement.
In that evening, I went to college as I would be meeting up with my friends to celebrate one of our friends birthday. I waited at the college for some time before my friends arrived. Then, we went to Haikara Style Cafe for dinner. It was located in SS15 Subang Jaya which is the same area as Taylor's College. However, it is not within walking distance from our college so we decided to go there by car. That was the first time I went to this restaurant. It serves Japanese food and it was quite tasty. After dinner, we went to Snowflake for dessert. It is located very near our college. There, we sang the birthday song for our friend and gave him a dessert that was used as a substitute for birthday cake. I did not order anything there because the desserts there were not suitable for me. Still, I enjoyed going there since I could spend time together with my friends. After that, it was quite late already and our outing ended. I walked back to the college and my parents took me home. Before sleeping, I got ready all the important documents for my interview on the next day. I felt happy that I could have an outing with my friends on that day.
25 June 2014 (Wednesday):
My interview for NUMed Malaysia was on that day. Before attending the interview, I had expected that it would be quite difficult since NUMed is a UK university but I did not feel very nervous because even if I was rejected, I still had IMU as a backup option. On that morning, my father drove me to Nusajaya, Johor. We decided to go early because that was the first time we were going there and we were not familiar with there. I used Waze to help find the direction to NUMed. We arrived there at noon. The NUMed campus looked very nice. Since my interview would only begin at 4PM, we decided to have lunch first. The only restaurant we could find was the Killiney Kopitiam located not far away from the university so we had lunch there. After lunch, it was still early so we went to the Medini Mall next to Legoland which is also not far away from NUMed. There, we had snacks at Oldtown White Coffee and we also went to the entrance of Legoland just to have a look.
After that, my father took me to NUMed. I told the guard there that I was attending an interview and he took me to the student's office. It was only 3PM at that time but my interview time was 4PM so I had to wait for some time. The staff there looked at my original certificates for AS Level, SPM and IELTS for verification purposes. Then at 3:30PM, a staff asked me if it was all right to start the interview early and I agreed. I was brought to the interview room in the student's office. There were 2 interviewers, both of them were female. Unexpectedly, the interview was not difficult. In fact, I felt that it was slightly easier than the interview for IMU. They asked me the usual interview questions. The only question that was a bit difficult was a question about specialist but luckily I was able to give the correct answer. There was a question on ethical scenario that I could answer quite well because I had seen that scenario several times on the television. The interview lasted for about 20 minutes and ended at about 4PM. Then, I took a few photographs at the university and also a selfie at its main entrance. That was the first selfie I have taken in my life.
I phoned my father and asked him to fetch me at NUMed. My father went to the EduCity stadium nearby and took a nap there when I was attending the interview. After that, we started our journey back to Subang Jaya. On our way back, we decided to stop at Malacca for dinner since it was quite late already. I had been to Malacca before this, but that was several years ago when I was still a child. Initially, we wanted to have Portugese food. However, we could not find any Portugese restaurant because we were not familiar with Malacca. Eventually, we decided to have dinner at a Nyonya restaurant. It is located near Jonker Walk and the food was quite tasty. After dinner, we returned to Subang Jaya. I felt that I performed quite well during the interview. However, I was not too confident of being offered a place at NUMed, due to the fact that I was rejected by Perdana University earlier due to poor interview performance.
26 June 2014 (Thursday):
I was expecting that on that day NUMed Malaysia would inform me the outcome of my application because I have read on the internet that the application outcome would usually be out on the day after the interview. I really hoped that I would be offered a place by NUMed because I liked the university after going there on the previous day. However, I did not feel too worried about that, because even if they rejected me, I could still study Medicine at IMU and be sponsored by the JPA scholarship. On that day, I waited for a reply from NUMed. But by 5PM, NUMed still have not replied me, so I assumed that NUMed would not be replying on that day since the office had closed at that time.
Out of my expectation, soon after that I received an e-mail from NUMed which stated that I have been offered a place to study at NUMed. The conditions of my offer was 3A in A Level including Biology, Chemistry and either one of Mathematics or Physics. I was very happy about that because for the first time I was successful in getting an offer to study Medicine at a UK university, even though it is the Malaysia campus. In fact, I considered that as one of my greatest accomplishments in year 2014. This also proved that my interview skills is actually not bad. I then told my family members about that and they also felt very happy. However, I was a bit worried that I might not be able to meet the offer conditions because I was not 100% confident of getting A in Biology since the A2 Biology that I sat for was extremely difficult.
28 June 2014 (Saturday) - 13 July 2014 (Sunday):
On 28 June, my father took me back to Kulim in the afternoon. I stayed in Kulim for 2 weeks. During that 2 weeks, I spent time with my grandparents. We often went out for breakfast and sometimes also for lunch. For dinner, most of the time my grandmother would cook because in Subang Jaya I often miss the food that she cooks. I also drove every day in Kulim. That gave me the opportunity to practise and improve my driving skills since I seldom drive in Subang Jaya. My grandmother also taught me certain skills that I need to know in order to live in the hostel after entering university. She taught me how to wash my laundry and cook rice.
Because my house in Kulim does not have Wi-Fi, I had to use the mobile data of my iPad in order to access the internet. However, on 8 July, I got the notification from Maxis that I had used up the 3GB quota of my mobile data, so the internet speed would be reduced to 64 kbps unless I top up the quota. It is almost impossible to surf the internet with a speed of 64 kbps because that is very slow, so I decided to top up the quota. On 9 July, my grandparents took me to a Maxis centre in Kulim to top up the quota. However, they told me that I could not top up there, instead I had to do so either through online or by phoning Maxis. Later, I tried to phone Maxis, but the person on the line said that only my father who is the account holder can phone them to top up. After that, I tried to top up through online, but for some reason the website used to top up would not load. As a result, I felt very unhappy and angry with Maxis.
Eventually, after retrying several times the website used to top up the quota could finally load and I topped up the quota successfully. I felt happy because I regained access to the internet. Later on that day, I applied for the accommodation for NUMed Malaysia through online. Even though the deadline of the application was in 31 July, I applied early because I wanted to get a single room instead of a shared room and I was worried that there might be no more single room available if I apply later. I had to pay deposit of RM100 for that so I phoned my mother to ask her to pay. She agreed and told me that she would pay it on the next day by bank-in. On the next day 10 July, I received the offer of accommodation from NUMed. I was given a single room which was what I wanted. Later on that day, my mother e-mailed me the receipt of the bank-in and I forwarded that to NUMed as the proof of payment.
On 10 July, my friends had a food trip to Myburgerlab. I went there with my friends previously on 4 June and it was very interesting so I really wanted to go there with them again. But, I was unable to join them because I was in Kulim, so I felt sad and disappointed about that. However, I did not regret going back to Kulim for 2 weeks just because of that. Then on 13 July, my father took me back to Subang Jaya. I did not stay longer in Kulim because I would be going to Redang Island with my friends on the following week.
14 July 2014 (Monday):
When I received the offer from NUMed Malaysia on 26 June earlier, I was required to pay a deposit of RM20000 within 6 weeks from that, otherwise my offer could be withdrawn. My parents had paid a deposit of RM25110 for IMU earlier so I did not want my parents to pay another RM20000 if possible. Earlier during the briefing for JPA scholarship on 29 May, the officer from JPA mentioned that if we received a conditional offer from a university and was required to pay a deposit before our actual A Level results was out, we could get a temporary financial affidavit (TFA) from JPA and submit it to the university to avoid paying for the deposit. However, he did not give further explanation about that and that was why I did not get a TFA for IMU earlier. But this time, I decided to get a TFA for NUMed so I needed more details about it.
On that day, I went to Taylor's College to ask about the TFA. However, it turned out that the staff at the college office was also not sure about the TFA. She said that most probably I had to wait until my actual A Level results is out in August 2014. She also told me to contact JPA if I needed more details. After that, I also telephoned NUMed to ask if it was compulsory for me to submit the TFA to them if I did not want to pay the deposit and they said that I must submit it. Therefore, I decided to ask my parents to take me to the JPA headquarters in Putrajaya to ask about that. However, I would only do so after returning from the trip to Redang Island since I still had about 3 weeks to pay the deposit for NUMed.
16 July 2014 (Wednesday) - 18 July 2014 (Friday):
During that time, I went to Redang Island for holidays with my friends for 3 days and 2 nights. On 16 July, I woke up very early in the morning. My father took me to Subang Airport. There, I waited for a while before my friends arrived. After checking in, I and my friends had breakfast at McDonalds. Then, we boarded the plane. We took Firefly and we flew to Kuala Terengganu. That was the first time where I took Firefly. I was a bit worried of taking a plane because that was my first flight since the MH370 incident. After arriving at the Kuala Terengganu airport, a bus took us to Merang Jetty. I have never been to Kuala Terengganu before that so on that day I had the opportunity to see how Kuala Terengganu looks for the first time. Then, we took a boat from Merang Jetty to Redang Island. The experience of taking the boat was really interesting. It took about 1 hour to get to Redang Island.
After arriving at Redang Island, we checked in at Redang Pelangi Resort. We were given our room keys, life jacket and snorkelling mask. I stayed in the same room as 2 of my close friends. Then, we had lunch at the canteen of the resort. In the afternoon, we went snorkelling somewhere near our resort. I felt a bit nervous about that because that was the first time I went snorkelling in my life and I did not know how to swim. My friends told me not to worry because we would be wearing our life jacket all the time when snorkelling and some of them also could not swim. At first, to be safe I only stayed near the ladder of the boat. I was able to stay afloat with my life jacket. That made me feel more confident so I moved away from the ladder. Then, my friend told me to look underwater because there were many nice fishes. However, when I tried to breathe using the snorkelling mask, some sea water entered my mouth. I got panic because I thought that I was drowning so I struggled and shouted for help. Then, someone on the boat used a rope to pull me back to the ladder. It turned out that it was because I did not wear the snorkelling mask correctly so he taught me how to wear it.
For a moment, I thought that it was my 'near-death experience'. But when I thought of it further, I realised that I could not actually drown since I was wearing the life jacket and actually I did not breathe in any sea water at all when that happened. However, the problem was that I got panic too easily. To prevent the same thing from happening again, I decided to only stay near the boat's ladder when snorkelling. I practised breathing underwater through the snorkelling mask while holding on to the ladder and I was able to do so. Still, I was afraid to move away from the ladder. Even though I only stayed near the ladder, I was still able to see many nice fishes and the coral underwater. After snorkelling, we went back to the beach. There, I played frisbee with my friends. I have never played frisbee before and it was more difficult than what I had expected so I did not play very well. After that, I went back to the resort room to take my bath. We had dinner at the resort's canteen on that night. After dinner, we played the board game Bang! at the canteen. We played for quite a long time until late at night before sleeping.
On the 2nd day of the trip which was 17 July, in the morning we ate breakfast at the resort's canteen. After breakfast, we took a boat to Perhentian Island. The boat was similar to the one we took from Merang Jetty to Redang Island on the day before. The journey also took about 1 hour. We went snorkelling near Perhentian Island. The waves at the first snorkelling site was too strong so we changed the site to the other side of the island. Again, I only stayed close to the boat's ladder when snorkelling. This time, we could not see any coral underwater, but there were more fishes compared to the snorkelling site on the previous day. After that, we had lunch at one of the restaurants on Perhentian Island. The food served was the typical Terengganu food. The restaurant looked quite simple but the food was quite tasty. Then, we took a boat to Lang Tengah Island. We did not set foot on the island but just went snorkelling near the island. There, we could see turtles in addition to fishes underwater. Among all the snorkelling sites, the fishes near Lang Tengah Island were the most beautiful.
After that, we went to the Marine Park in Redang Island by boat. There, many of my friends went swimming near the island except 2 of them. I and my 2 friends walked around the Marine Park and took some photographs. Then, I also went swimming while my 2 friends sat at the beach to enjoy the scenery there. Since I did not know how to swim, I only swam at the shallow area near the beach with my life jacket on. I was swimming alone because my friends were swimming at another deeper area. We stayed at Marine Park for some time before returning to Redang Pelangi Resort by boat. We again played frisbee at the beach. Compared to the previous day, I could play slightly better on that day but still not very good. On that night, we again had dinner at the canteen of the resort. After dinner, I rested for a while in the room before going to the canteen to play mahjong with some of my friends. Because I was not very experienced in playing mahjong, I kept making mistakes and losing when playing but I managed to win once with the help of one of my friend. After that, they wanted to have a karaoke. I did not join them, instead I went to my friends' room to play Bang! with my other friends. We again played until late at night.
When my friends and I were about to go back to our rooms after playing, at that time suddenly one of our friends said 'Malaysia Airlines'. At first I was wondering why and it turned out that she saw on the internet the news about the MH17 incident which happened on that day. None of us knew about the incident at that time. I searched on the internet and found out that the news was indeed true. I felt very sad about that. Worst of all, the MH17 incident happened just about 4 months after the MH370 incident and both were aviation disasters involving Malaysia Airlines. After returning to my room, I slept. When I have lied down on the bed for some time, my friends told me that they were going to the beach to look for 'blue sand' and invited me to join them. Although I was quite interested in seeing blue sand, I was quite tired at that time so I decided to sleep instead of joining them. One of my friend in my room joined them while the other one did not.
On 18 July which was the last day of the trip, after having breakfast at the canteen of the resort, we checked out from Redang Pelangi Resort. We took group photos at the beach of Redang Island before leaving (one of the photos is currently the cover photo of my Facebook timeline). Then, we took a boat from Redang Island back to Merang Jetty. At Merang Jetty, a bus took us to the Redang Pelangi Resort office which is located at Jalan Syed Hussein, Kuala Terengganu. We stayed at the office for several hours because our flight would only be on that night. At the office, we played Bang! again. We played for several rounds since we had a long time there. At noon, we had lunch at the McDonalds located near the office. After lunch, we went back to the office and continued playing Bang! . During that trip, 2 of my friends also designed a beautiful notebook for every one of us. At that time, we also exchanged our notebooks to write how we felt about each other. I let my friends write in my notebook and I also wrote in my friends' notebooks.
Later in the afternoon, we went to the Ramadhan bazaar at Dataran Shahbandar near the office. A lot of food and drinks were sold there. I bought 2 cups of coconut water because I was quite thirsty at that time and my friends also bought some food and drinks. We were at the Ramadhan bazaar for some time before returning to the Redang Pelangi Resort office. Soon after that, we took a bus to the the Kuala Terengganu airport. Because it was still quite early when we arrived at the airport, we again played Bang! there for some time. At the same time, we continued writing in each other's notebooks. I bought some snacks at one of the shops at the airport and had just that for dinner. Later, we checked in. While waiting to board the plane, I looked at what my friends have written about me in my notebook. I felt very touched after reading some of them. One of my friend who organised the trip asked me to rate the trip and I gave a 9/10 rating.
We were a bit worried of taking a plane on that day because it was just one day after the MH17 incident happened. However, we had no other choice because otherwise we would not be able to go home. The flight on that night was quite smooth and we arrived at Subang Airport safely. We collected our luggage and then said goodbye to each other. My parents were already waiting outside the Subang Airport at that time and they took me home. I really enjoyed this trip to Redang Island with my friends. I felt that this trip was more interesting compared to our previous trip to Singapore in December 2013. This was because in this trip my friends and I could really spend time together, while during our trip to Singapore we spent a lot of time shopping, but I do not really enjoy shopping and Singapore is not a good place to shop since the things there are very expensive. Unfortunately, this trip was likely to be my last trip with my college friends since we would soon be separated after entering university and I felt sad about that.
21 July 2014 (Monday):
On that day, I received a phone call from NUMed Malaysia. They said that I still had not accepted the offer to study at NUMed even though I have applied for the accommodation. I told them that it was because I still haven't got the temporary financial affidavit (TFA) from JPA which I had to submit them in order to avoid paying for the deposit. They then said that I could accept the offer first and submit the TFA later. Shortly after that, NUMed also sent me e-mail which stated that my offer would be withdrawn if I did not accept it soon. Therefore, I filled up the offer acceptance form and sent it to NUMed through e-mail on that night.
23 July 2014 (Wednesday):
My parents took me to the JPA headquarters in Putrajaya on that day because I wanted to make enquiries about getting the temporary financial affidavit (TFA). We went there early in the morning to avoid long queues. The JPA office was not yet open when we arrived there so we had to wait for a while. It turned out that I went to the wrong department, but the staff there was quite helpful. She telephoned Encik Hamka who was the person in charge and let me spoke to him on the phone. I asked him about the TFA and he said that I had to submit to him a photocopy of my identity card, my conditional offer letter from NUMed Malaysia and my forecast A Level results in order to get the TFA. Luckily, I have brought them with me so I could submit to him at that time. He then told me to go to another department to find him.
I went to the other department and told the staff there that I would like to meet Encik Hamka to get the TFA. However, the staff said that most likely I needed my actual A Level results in order to get the TFA. Encik Hamka had earlier said on the telephone that I could get the TFA with my forecast results so I insisted to see him. Then, Encik Hamka came out to see me and he confirmed that I could get the the TFA using my forecast results. I gave him the documents that he requested. He then printed out the TFA and gave it to me on the spot. I was very happy to get the TFA and I thanked Encik Hamka for that. Later on that day, I sent the TFA to NUMed through e-mail. NUMed then replied me that my deposit payment has been waived.
25 July 2014 (Friday):
On that morning, I went to the Subang Jaya KTM station to meet up with my friends. We would be going to Klang for a one-day trip on that day. When I reached the KTM station, some of my friends had just arrived. We bought the train tickets and waited for some time for our other friends to arrive. Then, we boarded the train. That was the first time where I took that train even though I had been staying in Subang Jaya for about 18 months. We got down the train at the Klang KTM station. Our friends who live in Klang fetched us at the station. It had been several years since I last went to Klang and on that day I had the chance to see how Klang looks like. I and my friends then had breakfast at the Fatty Mee Hoon Kuih House in Klang. I ordered noodle soup there and it was quite delicious.
After breakfast, we went to GM Klang which is a large shopping centre in Klang. At that time, my friends were planning a birthday party for one of our friends in 18 August and they needed some materials for the party decorations. My friends decided to buy some of the decorative materials at GM Klang at that time because a lot were sold there. We spent several hours there choosing and buying the decorative materials for our friend's party. After we finished buying, it was late in the afternoon. We were quite hungry because we still have not eaten our lunch. We then went to Bing Hai Bah Kut Teh restaurant to have bah kut teh. The bah kut teh there was very tasty and we felt quite full after eating because we ordered a lot.
After that, I was hoping that we would be going to somewhere else in Klang, but it was quite late at that time and some of my friends had to get home before night. Therefore, our friends who live in Klang drove us back to the Klang KTM station. We took a train back to Subang Jaya and our one day trip ended. My mother fetched me home from the Subang Jaya KTM station. Because it was still in the afternoon when I and my friends had the bah kut teh, I felt hungry on that night. So, my mother bought me nasi lemak for dinner. This one day trip to Klang was very interesting and I felt that it was too short. I was happy that I and my friends continued to have outings after the trip to Redang Island.
27 July 2014 (Sunday) - 29 July 2014 (Tuesday):
On 27 July, I and my parents went back to Kulim for 3 days and 2 nights. Then, we attended the birthday dinner of my mother side grandfather in Penang on 28 July. My grandparents also followed us to the dinner. My secondary school friends were planning to have a gathering on 29 July and we had a group conversation on Facebook. Initially, many responded that they could attend, but we did not make a decision on the time and venue of the gathering. However, later nobody replied to the conversation. Therefore, I assumed that the gathering was cancelled. I and my parents went back to Subang Jaya on 29 July. I did not stay in Kulim longer because I would be having outings with my college friends on the following weeks. I expected that the traffic on the North South Expressway would be quite bad on that day but it turned out that there was only some minor traffic jam.
3 August 2014 (Sunday):
I went to Sunway Pyramid at noon on that day to meet up with one of my friend. Her sister followed her there and 2 of her friends also joined us. I did not know her sister before that, but I could communicate with her sister quite well since she was quite sociable. Initially, we planned to go ice skating on that day, but my friend changed the plan so we would only be going ice skating on the following week. On that day, we watched the movie Step Up: All In at TGV Cinemas instead. Before watching the movie, we went shopping for a while and had lunch at McDonalds. My friend told me that Step Up: All In is a dance film. Since I am never liked dancing, I thought that I would not enjoy the movie.
However, it turned out that the movie was quite interesting and I enjoyed it very much. Although it was mainly about dancing, I liked its storyline. In fact, I felt that the movie actually taught us an important lesson in life that winning or losing is not always the most important when doing something, instead what's more important is to enjoy the process. This is particularly relevant for me as I realised that enjoying college life is more important than getting 4A* in A Level. After watching the movie, we had dinner at Arena food court. I ordered sizzling noodles there. Then at 8PM, my parents fetched me home. My friend and her sister also went home at the same time.
4 August 2014 (Monday):
I went to the Subang Jaya KTM station on that morning to meet up with my friends. I arrived there a bit late and my friends were already there because I overslept. This time, we would be going to Kajang for a one-day trip. We bought the train tickets and boarded the train. We had to interchange at Mid Valley on our way to Kajang. Then, we got down the train at the Kajang KTM station. At that time, one of our friend who lives in Kajang was already waiting for us there. She drove us to a satay restaurant in Kajang for lunch. The satay there was very delicious. I have been to Kajang before that, but I never tried the satay there. After lunch, our friend took us to her house in Kajang. It was a big bangalow.
There, we prepared the the decorations for the birthday party that we would be organising for one of our friends in 18 August. That was actually our main purpose of going to Kajang on that day. We mainly decorated the cups for the birthday party, but we also decorated some other things. At that time, one of my friend had a look at the playlist of my iPad and he decided to play the songs. My friends listened to the songs in my playlist while preparing the decorations. As a result, they knew the type of songs that I listen. We prepared the decorations for several hours until late in the afternoon. We could not finish the preparation on that day so we decided to continue on the following week. Then, we had dinner at a restaurant near our friend's house. After dinner, she drove us back to the Kajang KTM station and we took a train back to Subang Jaya. That was the end of our one day trip. I felt very happy about this trip and it was the second time we had a one day trip.
5 August 2014 (Tuesday):
On that day, it was my interview for SEGi University. Actually, that interview was not important for me because I have received offers from IMU and NUMed Malaysia. I would definitely choose NUMed or IMU over SEGi and the entry requirements for SEGi was the same as that of IMU. SEGi was also not in the list of universities sponsored by the JPA scholarship. I attended the interview for SEGi because earlier I have paid the application fee which was non-refundable and I did not want it to be simply wasted. I also wanted to use that opportunity to practise and improve my interview skills which was not very good. I did not prepare for it as I wanted to see how I would perform in the interview spontaneously. I also expected that the interview would be quite easy.
In the morning, my father took me to SEGi University in Kota Damansara. The interview time was 10AM but I was a bit late because I overslept again. I had to ask and look around in the university because they did not tell me the exact venue of the interview. Eventually, I arrived at the Faculty of Medicine office where the interview was held. It turned out that the interviewer arrived even later than me because he had forgotten about the interview. The interviewer was a Chinese man. He began the interview in a casual manner. Unexpectedly, he asked me questions like what online games do I play and what movies did I watch recently. When I told him that I play Clash of Clans, he even asked me 'What level is your town hall?'.
Later, the interviewer moved on to the main part of the interview which was more formal. I was asked the usual interview questions similar to those in my previous interviews, including a question on ethical scenario. In addition, he asked me some questions about HIV. I did not expect that because I was asked the same question during my mock interview for Oxford University last year, but not during any of my other interviews. However, those questions about HIV were basic questions that were easy to answer. Then, he said that SEGi does offer full scholarships and I had a considerable chance of getting it since my academic results were excellent. He told me to join the Facebook group for SEGi in order to find out more about the full scholarship.
At the end of the interview, the interviewer said that my interview performance was satisfactory and I had a high chance of being offered a place at SEGi. However, he also said that my communication skills was not very good so I should improve on that. The interview lasted for a total of about one and a half hours. That was much longer than all the other interviews that I have attended previously. However, this interview was quite easy and it was slightly easier compared to the interview for IMU and NUMed. After the interview, my father took me home. Actually, the campus of SEGi looked quite nice. However, it was highly unlikely that I would be studying at SEGi even if they offered me a full scholarship because it had a lower ranking than IMU and NUMed.
8 August 2014 (Friday):
On that day, SEGi University telephoned me. They told me that they had offered me a place to study at SEGi and asked me to pay a deposit as soon as possible. Of course, I would not be paying it since I did not want to study at SEGi. However, I did not want them to withdraw my offer straight away. So, I asked them to give me a week to pay the deposit. They reluctantly agreed.
10 August 2014 (Sunday):
On that day, I went to Sunway Pyramid at noon. Like the previous week, I met one of my friend and her sister there. One of her sister's friend also joined us. First, we watched the movie Guardians of the Galaxy. The movie had already started when we arrived at the cinema because we were late. As I expected, it was a very interesting movie and I enjoyed watching it. After watching it, we went ice skating at Sunway Pyramid Ice. We had planned that on the previous week. That was the first time in my life where I went ice skating so I felt a bit nervous but my friend promised that she would teach me how to skate. After putting on the skates, I had to walk to the skating rink. I had trouble walking with the skates even on the normal ground so I had to keep holding onto something.
After entering the ice skating rink, it became even more difficult. It was so slippery so I found it very difficult to maintain balance. So, I stayed near the edge of the rink so that I could hold onto the railing. At first, I could only move with the help of my friend. She let me walk first before learning to skate. With her help, I managed to complete 2 rounds around the rink. After that, I improved slightly. I could move without my friend helping me, but I still had to hold onto the railings. I completed a few more rounds by myself. Then, I felt more confident so I tried letting go of the railing when walking. At that time, I could walk on ice without holding onto anything, but I could only do so for a limited distance before I had to hold the railing again. So, I still had to stay near the edge of the rink.
My friend felt that I was ready to learn skating at that time so she started teaching me how to skate. However, I was very scared of falling down. As a result, I never knew how to skate even after my friend tried teaching me several times. Then, I decided to not learn skating yet but continue to practise walking on ice. With more practise, I could walk longer distances without having to hold the railing. I was also able to stand on the ice without holding the railing. But, I still stayed near the edge of the rink all the time as a precaution to avoid falling. Then, my friend wanted me to try going to the centre of the rink. I dared not do so as there was no railing there, but she and her sister offered to help me. I held onto them and walked from one edge to the opposite edge through the centre. Somewhere in the centre, I accidentally fell and as a result they also fell. That was the first and only time I fell down. Actually, falling on ice was not painful.
Later, we left the ice skating rink. I realised that I could now balance and walk very well with the skates on normal ground and I did not need to hold anything at all. Definitely, walking with the skates on the ground was much easier than on the ice. We rested for some time near the ice skating rink. At that time, my friend asked me if my parents could help send her sister's friend home since I would be passing through his residential area on my way home. The reason was because he had no transport to go home. I telephoned my mother to ask her about that and she agreed. After that, we wanted to have dinner. We were not sure where to have dinner because a few restaurants we saw there were quite expensive. Eventually, we decided to eat at a restaurant in Asia Avenue. I ordered curry noodles there. After dinner, my parents fetched me and my friend's sister's friend. We sent him to his house before going home.
11 August 2014 (Monday):
On that morning, I and my friends went to one of our friend's house in USJ 3A. Our purpose of going there was to continue preparing the decorations for one of our friend's birthday party, which we did not finish preparing on 5 August previously. We waited some time for every one to arrive. Then, we had lunch first at Restoran Sri Melur in SS19. A few of my friends drove us there. I had roti canai and curry chicken there. After lunch, we went back to our friend's house. There, we continued to prepare the decorations for our friend's birthday party. Later, we managed to finish the preparation at about 3PM and we were quite satisfied with what we had done. After tidying up, we decided to play some games together since it was still early at that time.
Our friend had a Nintendo Wii at her house and she offered to let us play it. We played some of its multiplayer games like racing, boxing and tennis. I have never played a Wii before and I did not have one, so my friends were surprised when it turned out that I played the games quite well. Then at about 4:30PM, many of my friends went home except 2 of my friends. Initially they also wanted to go home at that time, but they then decided to stay longer to accompany me since I was the only person left at our friend's house and it would be awkward. Later, my mother fetched me home at 5PM and my 2 friends also went home at the same time. I wished my friends good luck before going home because we would be receiving our A Level results on the following day.
12 August 2014 (Tuesday):
My A Level results was released at 1PM on that day. This result was the combined result of AS which I took in October 2013 and A2 which I took in May 2014. Before the results was out, I felt very nervous about that. Although I was quite confident in getting A* for Physics, Chemistry and Mathematics, I was worried of not getting A for Biology because the A2 Biology which I sat for was extremely difficult. The conditions of my offer for NUMed Malaysia was 3A including Biology, Chemistry and either one of Mathematics or Physics, so the offer could be withdrawn if I did not get A in Biology. I kept praying that I would get A in all subjects including Biology. I also prayed for my friends that they would get excellent results.
About 15 minutes before the results was released, I used my iPad to play the song 是我在做多情种 at high volume to help make myself feel less nervous. It is a very nice song and I repeated it a few times. I knew the song through a website which listed it as one of the best Chinese songs and I downloaded it just a few days ago. Then at 1PM, I checked my A Level results online at the Cambridge International Examinations (CIE) website. I felt very happy to see that I got A* for all the 4 subjects I took including Biology. I was so happy that I shouted 'Yes!', even thought at that time none of my family members were at home. My percentage uniform marks were 92 for Biology, 93 for Chemistry, 94 for Mathematics and 95 for Physics. This was interesting as the marks were in an ascending order.
I then informed my parents and my grandparents about my results and they also felt very happy. With 4A* in A Level, I met the conditions of my offer for NUMed so I no longer had to worry about that. I also achieved a 5 year record of straight A from October 2009 to August 2014. The last time where I did not get straight A was during my Form 2 second mid-semester examination in August 2009. However, maybe because I felt too stressed before the results was out, my body started feeling a bit unwell soon after I received the results and it lasted for a few days. On that night, my parents took me to Bubba Gump Restaurant at Citta Mall for dinner to celebrate for my results. But, I could not finish the food because my body felt unwell which caused me to lose my appetite.
13 August 2014 (Wednesday):
On that day, I sent the screenshot of my online A Level results through e-mail to NUMed Malaysia. I also submitted it to the University of Hong Kong (HKU) by uploading it to the admissions website. Later, NUMed replied me that my conditional offer had been converted into unconditional offer and they also sent me the unconditional offer letter through e-mail. However, HKU did not reply me on that day.
14 August 2014 (Thursday):
A few days ago, my friends invited me to join them to play badminton and go swimming on that day. Initially, I did not want to join them because I did not know how to play badminton and I could not swim. However, they persuaded me to join them by telling me that they would teach me how to play badminton and that the swimming pool would be shallow enough for me to stand in it. I then agreed to join them. On that morning, my mother took me to my friend's house in USJ 3A to meet up with my friends. My friends and I first went to Restoran Sri Melur in SS19 for breakfast. After that, we went to the Kompleks Kemudahan Kemasyarakatan (3K) Subang Jaya. There, we played badminton for some time.
That was the first time where I played badminton and my friends taught me how to play. I was able to serve the shuttlecock and sometimes also return the shuttlecock. However, my stamina was not good so I had difficulties in running to catch the shuttlecock if it went too far away from me. Therefore, I could only play doubles but not singles. After playing, we had lunch at the A&W located next to 3K. Then, we walked back to 3K. I bought a swimming trunk at one of the shops there. At that time, I received a phone call from IMU. They asked me what was my A Level results which was released 2 days ago and I told them that I got 4A*. They said that I met the conditions of my offer for IMU and told me to e-mail my results to them.
My friends and I went swimming at the swimming pool in 3K. The swimming pool was mostly 4 feet deep except at the deep end which was 7 feet deep. I could stand in the pool and I avoided the deep end. Since I could not swim, I only walked in the pool. Still, I found it very enjoyable. I did the same several times in the past whenever I stayed at hotels that had swimming pool. My friends who knew how to swim swam in the pool. Then, they went to the deep end for some time but I could not follow them there. A few hours later, we got out of the pool. We decided to have some snacks at that time so we went to Restoran Nirwana Maju in USJ 9. I ordered curry chicken there.
We initially planned to go jogging after that. However, we later changed our mind and decided to play badminton again. This time, we played badminton at the Elements Badminton Centre. Then, we stopped playing at about 7PM. My friends took me back to USJ 3A and my mother fetched me there at the guard house. I and my family had dinner at a steamboat restaurant before returning home. Actually, my body was still feeling unwell on that day, but I seemed to feel better after playing badminton and going swimming. On that night, I sent the screenshot of my online A Level results through e-mail to IMU.
15 August 2014 (Friday):
I went to college on that morning to meet up with my friends. We would be having a surprise birthday party for one of our friends in 18 August, but we decided to first have a pre-birthday celebration for her on that day. The purpose of the pre-birthday celebration was to avoid her from suspecting the actual birthday party on 18 August. At college, one of my friends met up with our teachers because she needed advice on retaking the A Level examination. After that, we went to Secrets of Louisiana Restaurant in Kelana Jaya where the celebration was held. One of our friends drove us there.
At the restaurant, we surprised our friend with the birthday song. Then, we had lunch there. I have been there with my friends twice before that. The restaurant was famous for its spaghetti and they allowed us to refill the spaghetti as many times as we like for free but the condition was that we must finish it, otherwise they would weigh the leftovers and charge us accordingly. I refilled the spaghetti 4 times and ate a total of 5 plates. I and my friends talked about our A Level results and the university that we would be studying at. 3 of my friends also obtained 4A* in A Level like me. After lunch, we went back to college. Then, some of my friends went home but others wanted to play badminton. I decided to join my friends to play badminton because they were planning to have dinner on that night after playing.
Before playing badminton, my friends went back to their houses to change their clothes. My friend offered to take me home to change my clothes but I could not because my parents were not at home at that time and I did not bring my house key with me. We went the badminton court in Taman Megah, Petaling Jaya to play badminton. It was about 5PM when we reached there. We played for about one hour. After that, my friends decided stop playing and go jogging instead. We went jogging at Bukit Kiara Park in TTDI. However, I was quite tired after playing badminton and my body was still feeling unwell on that day after it first started on 12 August. As a result, I walked quite slowly and lagged behind my friends when jogging.
We jogged for quite a long distance. The park was quite big and it had many roads but I did not get lost there thanks to the Maps app in my iPad. After my friends had finished jogging, they waited for about 5 minutes before I arrived. I felt very tired after jogging. After that, we had dinner at Ming Tien Food Court in Taman Megah. I had hokkien mee there and it was quite tasty. However, something embarrassing happened to me there. When I wanted to order drinks, I mistook a customer to be the waiter and I waved at him. My friends knew about that and they laughed. After dinner, we wanted to go home. I asked one of my friends to send me home since he stays in USJ 3A which is not far from my house in USJ 13 and he agreed. He sent one of our friend back to her house in Putra Heights before sending me home.
17 August 2014 (Sunday):
My first choice of university at that time was University of Hong Kong (HKU) while my second choice was NUMed Malaysia. However, HKU still did not reply me on that day. In order to get the JPA scholarship, there were several things that I had to do and I definitely needed quite some time to do them. The Medicine course at NUMed would be starting on 22 September which was not long after that. I began to worry that if I continue to wait for HKU to reply, by then I might not have enough time to do all those things to get the JPA scholarship. Therefore, on that day I decided to not wait for the reply from HKU anymore and study at NUMed instead. I went to the JPA eProfiling website to fill in the required information and I selected NUMed Malaysia as my choice of university. Then, I sent my unconditional offer letter for NUMed, the screenshot of my online A Level results and other required documents to JPA through e-mail. I hoped that JPA would offer me the scholarship as soon as possible.
18 August 2014 (Monday):
The birthday party that I and my friends planned for one of our friends was on that day. It was held at her house in USJ 18. Her house is quite near to my house and it is within walking distance. Many of my friends would be arriving at her house around 5PM so I also wanted to arrive at the same time, but my parents were still at work at that time. Therefore, I decided to walk to her house from my house. There were fences at the border between USJ 18 and USJ 13 and out of my expectation, the gates there were closed at that time so I could not cross over to USJ 18. I walked further to see if there was somewhere that I could cross and luckily, one of the gates was open. I crossed over to USJ 18 and arrived at my friend's house.
Some of my friends were already at her house when I arrived. She wasn't there at that time because one of our friends took her out since that morning so that she would not know about the birthday party. My friends were still preparing for the party and I helped them in the preparation. Later, more of my friends arrived. We then completed all the preparation works. After that, all of us waited for her to come home. As soon as she stepped into her house, we surprised her with the birthday cake. She then thanked every one of us. Her parents ordered a van of lok-lok and they invited us to eat. The lok-lok was quite nice and that was my first time eating it.
After eating, we played some games at her house. One of my friend brought the Bang! board game there and we played it. After playing a few rounds, all of us were asked to take photos together. Then, one of my friend asked me to use my iPad to play a video that she had sent to me earlier for every one to watch. The video was created by one of our friends who could not attend the birthday party because he was back in his home-town in Miri, Sarawak at that time. In the video, he wished our friend happy birthday and all of us laughed when watching it. Later, my friends began to go home. I telephoned my mother and asked her to come and fetch me. I did not walk home because it was not safe to do so at night.
My mother waited at the USJ 13 side of the border between USJ 13 and USJ 18 near my friend's house. She did not drive over to USJ 18 because to do so she had to make a long detour. I could see my mother's car across the border, but when I wanted to cross over, I realised that at that time all the gates there including the gate I used earlier were closed. Therefore, there was no way to cross over to USJ 13 unless if I climb over the fences. Luckily, there was a part where the fences were broken, so I crossed-over through that part. My mother then took me home.
19 August 2014 (Tuesday):
On that day, I and my friends had a one-day trip to Malacca. I went to one of my friend's house in USJ 3A on that morning to meet up with my friends. We waited for some time for every one to arrive. Then, we had breakfast at Restoran Sri Melur in USJ 17. After breakfast, we started our journey to Malacca. We went there in 3 cars. I sat in the same car with 4 of my close friends. Somewhere on the highway, my friend told me that he was driving at about 160 km/h. I did not notice that earlier because his car was quite smooth at high speeds. I was a bit scared because I never sat in a car at such high speeds before but my friend reassured me that nothing would happen. Later, he drove even faster and the fastest he drove on that day was about 180 km/h. As a result, we reached Malacca quite quickly.
At Malacca, we first had chicken rice ball at Chung Wah Restaurant in Jonker Street. We had to queue up for quite a long time because there were many customers. The chicken rice ball there was quite tasty. After that, we walked around Jonker Street and took some photographs there. We stopped at a stall named Taste Better. My friends had durian puff there but I did not because I never liked durian. Then, we went to Klebang Original Coconut Shake. My friends ordered coconut milkshake while I ordered coconut water since I preferred it. After that, we visited the Menara Taming Sari. On top of the tower, we had the opportunity to view the city of Malacca.
We then walked to the St Paul's Church nearby. We stayed there for some time and took some photographs. Next, we went to Pak Putra Restaurant which served North Indian and Pakistan food. There, we had tandoori chicken and naan. The tandoori chicken was very delicious and I really liked it. After eating, we went back to Jonker Street. We wanted to have cendol at a restaurant there. Unfortunately, the restaurant had just closed when we arrived there and they refused to serve us. We walked around that area and bought some souvenirs at the shops there. We also visited the Christ Church which is located at that area. Next, we also went to the Tan Kim Hock Product Centre nearby. There, my friends bought some local products of Malacca but I did not.
At that time, one of my friends who drove received a call from his mother. For some reason, his mother asked him to get home before 9PM. It was about 7PM at that time so he had to go home. I initially wanted to follow him home, but my other friends told me that they would still be having dinner at a nyonya restaurant in Malacca after that and they invited me to join them. Of course, I agreed to join them for the dinner. However, it turned out that another of our friend who drove also had to go home at that time. So, we only had one car remaining in Malacca, but there were still 7 of us. It was not possible for 7 persons to squeeze into one car, so someone among us had to make the sacrifice by following my friend back to Subang Jaya and not joining the dinner.
However, every one including me wanted to join the dinner. To be fair for everyone, we decided that we cancel the dinner and all of us go back to Subang Jaya at that time. Although that was disappointing, we knew that that was no better solution. On our way back, I had an interesting conversation with my friends in the car where we talked about how we felt about every one of our classmates. We kept talking all the way until we reached Subang Jaya. My friend drove us to USJ 3A. My mother was already waiting there at the guard house and she took me home. This trip to Malacca was really interesting, even though we could not have dinner there. However, I also felt sad because this might be my last outing with my college friends.
20 August 2014 (Wednesday):
On that day, I tried to login to the JPA ePenawaran website. It is possible to login only after JPA had offered the scholarship. I was still unable to login when I tried previously. Out of my expectation, the login was successful this time and the website stated that I had been offered the JPA scholarship to study Medicine at NUMed Malaysia. However, I did not not receive any e-mail from JPA about that. I immediately accepted the offer of the scholarship through the website. I was also required to print out the documents that were available on the website including the offer letter and the agreement and submit them to JPA before 17 September. I felt very happy that I got the JPA scholarship successfully. Later, I realised that JPA did send me an e-mail that I have been offered the scholarship but the e-mail was marked as spam by Hotmail.
23 August 2014 (Saturday):
The Taylor's College Cambridge A Level Award Presentation Ceremony was on that day. It was held at the multi purpose hall of Taylor's College Subang Jaya. All students who got at least 3A in the A Level examination were given awards during the ceremony. My parents attended the ceremony with me. When we arrived at the college, I was asked to go to one of the lecture theatres while my parents were brought to the multi purpose hall. I was given a piece of paper and I was asked to write my name and the university that I would be studying at on the paper. At the lecture theatre, I met a few of my friends. There, we were given a briefing about the ceremony. Later, we were asked to go to the multi purpose hall.
My college invited the staffs from the Ministry of Education to the ceremony. Students from Taylor's College Sri Hartamas also came here for the ceremony. I saw a few students from Sri Hartamas which I knew during the BTN camp earlier. At the beginning of the award presentation ceremony, the president of the Taylor's College gave a speech. Then, they gave the award to every student. They announced the name of every student as well as the university that the student would be studying at. Many students would be studying overseas especially in the UK but some would be studying locally. There were also a few students who would be studying at NUMed Malaysia.
When it was my turn to receive the award, I walked up the stage and passed the paper with my name and university to the MC before walking on to receive the award. When they announced the university that I would be studying at, they only said 'Newcastle University Medicine' and did not mention 'Malaysia' although I did write it on the paper. This surely gave others the impression that I would be studying Medicine overseas at Newcastle University UK. Quite a number of students clapped their hands for me when I received the award. I let the photographer take a photo of me on the stage before walking down the stage. Actually, the award that we receive on the stage was just a paper which only stated 'Congratulations' without our names on it. We would be receiving the actual award later.
After the ceremony ended, there was a photographing session for all students who received the award. Then, there was another photographing session with the staffs from the Ministry of Education for students under the MOE Bursary. After that, I went to the Reflective Learning Center of my college to collect the actual award. It was a certificate by my college which stated that I got 4A* in A Level. At the same time, I received the certificate of completion for Taylor's College and the certificate for the MPW (Mata Pelajaran Wajib) subjects. I was happy to know that I got grade B for the MPW Moral Education because I failed it at first and had to resubmit an assignment. I was also asked to fill up a form about the university that I would be studying after this.
Then, I met up with my parents. We had lunch at the Asia Cafe near my college before going home. Actually, on that day one of my friend was flying off to Canada to further her studies and some of my friends went to the airport to send her off. However, I could not join them because I attended the award presentation ceremony.
26 August 2014 (Tuesday):
On that day, I and my parents went to Johor to visit the accommodation of NUMed Malaysia at Horizon Residences, Bukit Indah. NUMed had invited me to visit the show house of the accommodation. We started our journey in the morning and arrived there at about 12PM. I had to use Waze to find the direction to Horizon Residences. When we arrived there, I paid a deposit of RM90 to the staff on duty for the car park permit at Horizon Residences that I was applying. Then, the staff took us to the show house which was located at the 11th floor of Horizon Residences. Horizon Residences is a newly built apartment so everything looked very new. They showed us the bedroom, living room, kitchen as well as the facilities provided. Many facilities are provided such as washing machine, microwave oven, refrigerator, air conditioner, water heater, table lamp and others.
I and my parents were quite satisfied with the accommodation. Next, they also took us to have a look at the swimming pool and gym at the ground floor. After visiting the accommodation, I and my parents had lunch at a restaurant located near Horizon Residences. The food was quite tasty and I would likely be eating at that restaurant often when I stay there. Then, we went to NUMed Malaysia. My mother did not follow along when my father took me there to attend the interview earlier so she wanted to see how the university looks. After that, we did not have anything else to do at Johor so we went back to Subang Jaya. After visiting the accommodation on that day, I felt less nervous about entering university because I had an idea on how my university life would be like.
27 August 2014 (Wednesday):
I went to college on that morning because I would be meeting up with my friends for lunch. Then at about 11:30AM, my friend told me to go to her car outside the college. She was waiting for me in her car. She told me that our friends would be going straight to the restaurant without coming to college. Initially, we planned to have lunch in Subang Parade. However, they changed the plan so we would going to Map's cafe in Bandar Sunway for lunch. My friend drove me to Map's cafe. After we reached there, we waited for a while for our friends to arrive. Then, my friends suggested that we share our food. Although I have never shared food with my friends before that, on that day I wanted to experience that so I agreed.
We ordered spaghetti carbonara, meat balls, burger and lychee cheese cake there. Before eating, we took photos of the food. One of my friend helped me to post the photos on my Instagram. We shared all the food we ordered. The food there was quite delicious, especially the burger. I have never been to that cafe before. Then, we asked the workers there to take photos of us together. After eating, my friend who drove me there had to go to Bangsar for a dental check-up while another of my friend had to go back to college because she would be having tuition with our Biology teacher. I also wanted to go back to college. So, my other friend drove us back to college. Before my friend's tuition started, I taught her some Biology at the college library.
At that time, out of my expectation I received an e-mail from the University of Hong Kong (HKU) which stated that they had rejected me. The said that it was because there were too many applicants applying for a limited number of places. I checked the admissions website and it stated my application status as 'Unsuccessful'. I did not feel disappointed about that because I had already decided to study at NUMed Malaysia and even if HKU offered me a place, I won't be able to study there under the JPA scholarship because I had confirmed with JPA that I chose NUMed. My friend knew about that because she was with me at that time. Later, she went for the Biology tuition. I stayed in college for some time before my mother came to fetch me home. I was happy that I and my friends still went for outings after the one day trip to Malacca which I earlier thought was our last outing. I also found it interesting to share food with my friends.
29 August 2014 (Friday):
One day before that, my college sent every student an e-mail to inform us that our A Level statement of results was ready to be collected on that day. I asked my friends if any of them would be collecting their statement of results on that day because I wanted to meet up with them at college. One of my friend said that he wanted to have lunch with me at Map's cafe after collecting the statement of results because I and my friends went there 2 days ago and he had never been there before. On that morning, I went to college and collected A Level my statement of results. I met my friend at the college. Then, we met another of our friend who also went to collect her statement of results. She was free to join us for lunch.
She was one of my friends who went to Map's cafe with me 2 days ago so she did not want to go there again. Therefore, we changed our plans. We went to Restoran Sri Melur in SS19 for lunch instead. I had roti canai and curry chicken there. After lunch, my friend wanted to go to one of our friend's house in Kelana Jaya to revise Biology with him and I decided to follow her there. We stayed at his house for some time and I gave them some help in revising Biology. While we were there, my other friend who drove went home for a while. Later, he came to fetch me and my friend and he took us back to college. I again stayed in college for some time before my mother fetched me home.
30 August 2014 (Saturday) - 31 August 2014 (Sunday):
On 30 August, I and my father went back to Kulim for one night. He had to go to Penang in the morning on 31 August for some business purposes. I did not stay longer in Kulim because on the following week I had to prepare and submit the documents required by JPA in order to get the scholarship and I would also be having outings with my friends. On 31 August, I and my father went back to Subang Jaya in the afternoon. On our way back, we stopped at Ipoh and had dinner at a Western food restaurant.
1 September 2014 (Monday):
I was planning to meet up with one of my friend on the next day. I bought mooncakes from her so I wanted to collect it. We also planned to watch movie. However, on that night she told me that none of her friends was free to join us for movie on the next day. We did not want to go and watch movie without anyone else, so we had to change the plan where we would only meet at college and spend some time together there. But later, one of my friend told me that he was free to join us on the following day. Therefore, we reverted to the original plan and we would be watching movie.
2 September 2014 (Tuesday):
On that morning, my mother took me to the post office to buy the Hasil stamps which were required for the agreement of my JPA scholarship. After that, she took me to college because I would be meeting up with my friends. I waited at the college for some time before my friends arrived. Then, one of my friend drove us to Sunway Pyramid. We would be watching the movie Lucy at TGV Cinemas on that day. We had snacks at McDonalds before watching the movie. As I expected, the movie was very interesting and I liked it. It was a scientific movie about the myth that humans only use about 10% of their brain capacity and it showed what would happen if someone managed to use more than 10% of the brain.
After the movie ended, I and my friends went back to SS15 and had lunch at one of the restaurants there. We did not have lunch at Sunway Pyramid because the restaurants there were quite expensive. After lunch, one of my friend had to go home. At that time, my other friend wanted to give me the mooncakes that I bought from her. She did not bring the mooncakes with her so she drove me to her mother's office to get the mooncakes. The mooncakes were made by her cousin and she helping her cousin to sell them. I stayed with her for some time at her mother's office. Then, I followed her to pick up her sister from school when the school was over. After that, she drove me back to college. My mother then fetched me home from college. This outing I had with my friends was very interesting but this was also very likely to be my last outing with my college friends.
3 September 2014 (Wednesday):
On that day, my mother took me to Bank Islam in USJ Taipan to create a new bank account. I needed a Bank Islam account to receive the monthly allowances for the JPA scholarship. When I was creating the bank account, the bank staff had to scan my thumbprint to verify that it matched the thumbprint stored in my identity card. I was worried that the verification might fail because I had that problem when I created a CIMB Bank account about one year ago. It turned out that on that day there was no problem at all with the verification, probably because Bank Islam used a high quality fingerprint sensor. The bank staff there was quite friendly and it only took quite a short time for my bank account to be created successfully. I was then given a debit card. This was the 2nd debit card that I own.
My father also brought the agreement for my JPA scholarship together with the Hasil stamps to the Pejabat Hasil on that day for the Hasil stamps to be remitted. I did not follow him there because the Pejabat Hasil is located near his office so he went there during his work hours. When my father returned home on that night, he told me that he had done that successfully. With that, all the documents required by JPA were ready to be submitted to them. I felt happy and relieved about that. I was also happy and relieved that I had created the Bank Islam account on that day. On that night, I got ready all those documents because I would be submitting them to JPA on the following day.
4 September 2014 (Thursday):
My mother took me to the JPA headquarters in Putrajaya on that day to submit the documents for the scholarship. This time, we knew the correct department to go to because we had been there previously. There were 2 other students there who were also submitting the documents like me, but both of them would be studying overseas. I submitted all the documents to the staff there. He looked at all the documents and told me that everything was done. He also said that since I would be studying locally, there was no need for me to get a financial affidavit (FA) from JPA. I then thanked the staff.
After that, my mother took me to IMU. There, I submitted the withdrawal form because I would not be studying there anymore and we wanted to get a refund of the deposit we had paid earlier. I also gave them a copy of my JPA scholarship offer letter to study at NUMed. The staff confirmed with us that they would refund the deposit in full since I was offered a full scholarship to study at another university, which was their policy. They would be refunding it a few weeks later by banking in. Then, my mother and I went home.
6 September 2014 (Saturday) - 14 September 2014 (Sunday):
On 6 September, my father took me back to Kulim in the evening. I stayed in Kulim for 1 week. I spent time with my grandparents during that week. I usually followed my grandparents out for breakfast and sometimes lunch while my grandmother would usually cook at home for dinner. My grandmother also taught me more skills that I need to learn so that I could live in the hostel after entering university. She had taught me some of the skills when I went back to Kulim previously. This time, she taught me how to wash shoes, iron clothes and cook instant noodles.
At that time, my uncle and aunt bought a new car for my grandparents. It was a Perodua Alza. One day when I was in Kulim, my grandparents went to collect the car and I followed them. That was the first time where I experienced collecting a new car. Then on 14 September, my parents took me back to Subang Jaya. I initially planned to go back to Subang Jaya on 15 September, but it turned out that my father was busy on that day so I had to go back one day earlier. I did not stay longer in Kulim because I had to get ready to enter university on the following week.
15 September 2014 (Monday):
At that time, I was using a Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman phone. The phone's performance was poor because it kept lagging very badly and it also had very little storage space. I really regretted choosing that phone last time. Since I would be entering university soon, my mother wanted to buy me a new phone. However, I was not sure which phone should I get. I thought of getting a Samsung Galaxy Note 3 because my friends told me that it is a very good phone, but its was priced above RM2000 and my mother wanted to keep the budget below RM2000. My mother suggested that I get either a Samsung Galaxy S5 or a Sony Xperia Z, but I have heard from my friends that Samsung phones other than the Note series have poor quality and I wanted to avoid Sony phones after the poor experience I had with my Sony Ericsson Live with Walkman.
On that afternoon, my mother took me to Subang Parade to see the types of phones which were on sale to help me decide which phone should I get. We went to a stall selling phones and asked the owner of the stall for his recommendation. He then recommended me the HTC One E8 phone. He said that the price of this phone was about RM1800 and it was just released not long ago. It ran Android 4.4 Kitkat and it had a storage space of 16GB which is quite large. Besides, the speed of its processor was similar to that of a Samsung Galaxy Note 3. For me, the most important aspects of a phone is the operating system, processing speed and storage space. I and my mother felt that the phone was very good. Therefore, we decided to buy the HTC One E8.
This phone used a nano SIM but my SIM card was a micro SIM, so the owner of the shop helped me to cut the micro SIM into a nano SIM in order to transfer it to the new phone. I did not get a new phone number. Then, he also recommended me to buy the original HTC Dot View case for my phone. He said that its price was more than RM100, but if I buy it I would also be getting a screen protector for my phone for free. My mother felt that it was quite worth it so we bought the case. After buying the phone, we went home and I started using and exploring my new phone. I then transferred my data from my previous phone to this phone. This HTC One E8 phone is definitely much better than my old phone and I am very satisfied with it.
18 September 2014 (Thursday):
I went to college on that morning because I would be meeting up with one of my friend to have lunch together. I stayed at the college myself for some time because she would only be arriving at noon. At the time, I unexpectedly saw another of my friend at college. She was at the college to make some enquires because she would be applying to IMU for Dentistry. I talked to her for a while. I invited her to join me and my friend for lunch but she could not because she had some other things to do after that.
At noon, my friend that I would be meeting arrived at college. She was already studying in university at that time. 2 of her university friends followed her here because they wanted to try the food in SS15. I did not know her friends and she introduced them to me. We had lunch at Mr Rice Restaurant in SS15. I talked to my friend while having lunch. After lunch, they left because they had to attend a lecture in their university in the afternoon. After their lecture ended, my friend came back to college to do something and I met up with her for a short while. My mother then fetched me home at about 5PM. This was the last time I met my college friends before entering university.
20 September 2014 (Saturday):
I moved into my university accommodation at Horizon Residences, Bukit Indah, Johor on that day. On that morning, I and my parents had lunch at Restoran Sri Melur in SS19. That restaurant reminded me of my college friends because I went there with my friends a few times in the previous month. I felt sad because I won't be meeting them for quite some time until the first semester break of my university. After breakfast, we started our journey to Johor. We went there in 2 cars where my father drove one car and my mother drove another because they would be leaving one car in Johor for me to use. I was excited about living at Horizon Residences. We arrived in Bukit Indah at about 2:30PM. It was raining heavily there when we arrived.
We had lunch at a restaurant located near Horizon Residences. It was the same restaurant that we went to when we visited the university accommodation about one month ago. After lunch, we went to Horizon Residences. There was a registration counter there for students of NUMed Malaysia. After registering, the staff there took me to my unit in the 17th floor. When I entered the unit, my house mates were already there. I met them and introduced myself. I looked around the unit especially my bedroom. Then, I and my parents went to our cars to bring all the things to the unit. We had to do that 3 times because we brought a lot of things. My parents stayed with me in my bedroom for a while.
After that, my parents took me to the AEON mall nearby. There, I bought pizza for my dinner on that night and bread for breakfast on the next day. My parents also bought me a laundry bag because we forgot to bring one from our house. Next, we went to the university to have a look. My parents then took me back to Horizon Residences and they went back to Subang Jaya after that. On that night, I had the pizza for dinner. Because I only knew my house mates on that day, I was still not close to them so I stayed in my bedroom most of the time. That day marked the beginning of a new chapter in my life because for the first time I am living independently far away from my family members.
21 September 2014 (Sunday):
On that morning, I had the bread that I bought on the previous day for breakfast. At about 2:30PM, I went to AEON mall. I took the shuttle bus provided by NUMed Malaysia to get there. I did not drive there although I had a car because it was difficult to find a parking space there and my was very poor at parking. That was the first time I took the shuttle bus. There, I had sizzling noodles at Arena food court for lunch. After that, I stayed at AEON for some time because the next shuttle bus would be at 5:30PM. I bought a sandwich at Subway to have it for dinner on that night. Then, I went to the bus stop to wait for the NUMed shuttle bus at about 5:30PM.
At that time, there were a group of students nearby who were also waiting for bus. I thought that they must be NUMed students as well but I did not approach them because I did not know any of them. Soon, it was past 5:30PM but the bus still did not come. I kept waiting and the other group of students were also waiting. Then at about 6PM, they walked towards me and told me that they were NUMed students. They said that they would not be waiting for the bus any more and they were going to walk back to Horizon Residences. They invited me to follow them back and I agreed. I introduced myself and they also introduced themselves. One of them was an international student from India.
When we just walked onto the main road, out of our expectation the shuttle bus arrived at AEON. The bus driver told us that the bus schedule had been changed so the bus would go to AEON at 6:30PM instead of 5:30PM. However, NUMed did not inform us about the change in bus schedule. We took a photo of the new bus schedule. After arriving at Horizon Residences, I told my house mates about the change in bus schedule. On that night, I and my house mates had a meeting at the living room to discuss some house rules. My Medicine course at NUMed would be starting on the next day. I got ready for university on that night before sleeping.
22 September 2014 (Monday):
It was my first day of study at NUMed Malaysia. On that day, I woke up quite early at 6:30AM. After taking my bath and having my breakfast, I took the shuttle bus provided by NUMed to get to the university. A few students were at the university when I arrived there. I waited for some time because the registration was still not open. At 8:30AM, the registration opened and it was at the Learning Resource Centre (LRC) of the university. After registering, every student was given the student card, IT access card, locker keys, lab coat and some documents such as the Medicine course handbook. We were also required to fill up some forms. Then, our seniors took us on a tour around the university to show us every part of the campus.
At 11AM, there was an introductory session at the lecture theatre of NUMed. It was held by a lecturer from UK. During the session, he conducted a survey on all students. After that, I had lunch at Tyne Cafe in the university. The food there was quite tasty. Then at 3PM, there was an English language proficiency test at the lecture theatre. At first, every student including me was wondering why we still need to sit for the test even though we had taken the IELTS or MUET before we were offered a place at the university. The lecturer then explained to us that the style of writing for IELTS was different compared to the style of academic writing in university, so they had to test our ability to write in academic writing style. Those who did not pass the test had to attend English language classes throughout Semester 1.
The English language proficiency test only tested on writing which was my significant weak point. During the test, we were required to write an essay about the advantages and disadvantages of shopping on the internet. Although I knew what to write, I felt that I did not write well. I also wrote the essay in IELTS style because I did not know how to write in academic writing style. Therefore, it was likely that I would not pass the test and had to attend English classes. After the test ended, it was time to go home. I bought dinner at Tyne cafe and took the NUMed shuttle bus back to Horizon Residences. On that night, it was the last night for me to relax because my university would begin the teaching on the following day.
22 September 2014 marked the end of the 4 months after my A2 Level examination.
Conclusion:
It was clear that the 4 months between 22 May 2014 and 22 September 2014 were very interesting for me. Several notable incidents happened during that period of time. To me, all those incidents were very interesting, with the only exception of the BTN camp that I attended. During that 4 months, there were a number of things that I did for the first time in my life, such as watching movie at cinema, snorkeling, ice skating and playing badminton. These were definitely great experiences for me. I mostly felt relaxed during the 4 months because my A2 level examination was over.
This story is extremely long because I wrote about all the incidents that happened in a period of 4 months which is quite long. This is the longest story I have written so far. The reason why I can remember all the events and the dates so well is that I usually took photos during every event, so I just have to look at the date of the photos to know when each event happened. Now, I really miss that 4 months very much. I wish I can go back in time to experience that 4 interesting months again. Lastly, thank you for reading the entire of this story.
If you find this story interesting, you may want to read these too:
http://daniellimjj.blogspot.com/2017/09/my-2017-summer-break.html
http://daniellimjj.blogspot.com/2014/06/july-2013-eventful-month.html
(THE END)
So you managed to get tFA even though you haven't actually made the final decision to study at NuMed? Sorry if I sound abrupt, because my deadline is getting closer but I'm still waiting for replies from other uni I’ve applied to. I’m considering whether I should go get tFA or not..
ReplyDeleteAfter getting the TFA for a particular university, if you later receive an offer to study at another university, you can still switch to that university and be sponsored under JPA. So yes you should get the TFA.
DeleteOh okay! Thanks so much! So can I get tFA using the unconditional offer letter? And does this mean I can inform JPA about my current situation and they will issue me the tFA? JPA is not gonna make the payment straightaway right?
DeleteFrom what I know, you can only get the TFA if you haven't received your final results and your offer letter is conditional. Once you have received your final results and you got the unconditional offer letter, you have to decide on which university you want to study at and you can only get the actual FA (not TFA). You cannot switch to other universities anymore after you get the actual FA.
DeleteAre you waiting for replies from local public universities such as UM, USM etc. ? If that is the case, I would advise you to stop waiting and just choose NUMed. Trust me, NUMed is a much better choice than those local public universities.
Hi. Did you attend the BTN camp only? I thought you are required to attend both the SAC and BTN camp? If you did attend the SAC, can you please share your experience too? Thank you.
ReplyDeleteAccordingly, I have to attend the SAC whether I am studying locally or overseas. However, the staff at JPA was not sure about that. He said that they would contact me if I am required to attend the SAC. Until now, JPA never contacted me about the SAC. My friends who are JPA scholars also have not attended the SAC.
DeleteI might be going to NUMed for medicine so may I know how are the classes carried out? Do the students use course books or just e-learning? Are the course books costly 'cause I heard living expenses at NUMed is quite high..
ReplyDeleteHi Daniel! You must be extremely busy this year and I'm sorry to trouble you but may I know whether obtaining a certificate from NUMED will allow you to work in UK? I heard that although NUMED certificates are recognised by the medical board in UK, we still can't go there to work. Then, what's so special about the NUMED cert? Thanks!
ReplyDeleteFor NUMed graduates who wish to practise in the UK, there are 2 options.
DeleteThe first option is to do housemanship in the UK (known as the F1 programme). However, the application for the F1 programme is very competitive and priority is given to UK citizens and those who graduate from a medical school in UK (NUMed is not considered as a medical school in UK). As a result, the chance of us being offered the F1 programme is extremely low. I would say, it is even more difficult than to get an offer to study Medicine at Oxford University. Therefore, this option is not a viable option.
The second option is to do housemanship at one of the five hospitals in Malaysia that are approved by the UK GMC. We have to select one of those hospitals when applying for housemanship. After completing the housemanship, we will be able to practise in the UK. This option is the one we should look into. However, this option is only available for Malaysian citizens, because non-Malaysians cannot do housemanship in Malaysia.
The second option wasn't available until 2014, when the first batch of NUMed students graduated. Before that, it was almost impossible for any NUMed graduate to practise in the UK. Now that the second option is available, it is much easier.