Life in Matriculation

Hectic. One word is enough to sum up all the things that have been going on here, in Penang Matriculation College (PMC). As a matter of fact, I’m currently stealing a fraction of my precious time to brag a little about my life, which in fact, is another form of waste of time. Heck, I should be studying in my room or in the chilly library (it’s freaking cold in there). Apparently, I’m blogging directly from one of the college’s cybercafé which imposed a charge of RM 2 per use. I’ve been experiencing emotional turmoil since the first time I stepped foot in this college. I’ve never been away from my family for such an extended period (two weeks and two days till date), and being the youngest and paling “manja”, I find life in PMC to be extremely tough and challenging. Each day, I’d force myself to take cold shower at around 5am, while others were still asleep. I count myself quite fortunate as I can still drink iced coffee on a daily basis since the cafeteria here sells ice for only 10 cents. Class would commence as early as 8am and last till 4pm, except on Thursdays whereby it ends by 5pm.

I was taken aback by the fact that my matriculation syllabus is more or less similar to Form 6 syllabus. The only difference is that our examinations are carried out on a semester basis whereby any topics tested in the first semester will not be questioned in second semester’s exam.

Besides that, I’m the only Chinese and non-bumiputera in my class, which totaled to 24. Initially, there were 27 in total, but unfortunately, my ex-primary schoolmate (Aqram) left PMC after receiving a MARA scholarship to do medicine, together with another malay girl (Mira). The other Chinese girl was another successful JPA scholar (India medic) whom decided to take a “little vacation” here while waiting for her offer letter. Her vacation period, however, ended last week. There are also quite a number of JPA scholars still undertaking matriculation here after receiving their offer letters. They decided to stay a lil longer till their studies commence next month. [Idiots! You know you got JPA, pergi belah-lah, biarlah orang lain buat matric]. Who says that matriculation students don’t stand a chance for JPA scholarship? That’s plain bullshit. What surprised me the most was that someone with a 2A in biology was awarded the scholarship (9 1A, 2A2) despite the fact that there are other straight 1A’s scorer being deprived of the scholarship.

I find it hard to form new friendships here as most of the chinese prefer to speak in mandarin. At times, I was left out totally as I couldn't understand their mandarin (different accent). So far, I only have one close friend, who originated from pahang. His dad's an indian while his mom a chinese. Mind you, he speaks fluent cantonese, mandarin and english. Will update more later...

That's all for now. Good luck to those in Form 6.