Those days in College - YMCA Jewell House

During our college days, we were put up in YMCA hostel, 11 floor with 200 rooms, 9th & 10th Floor were catered for the female student with strict rules for security concerned.

Single room for each of us with basic facilities like desk, bed, fan, heater & wardrobe, common sharing areas were bathroom, pantry, TV room & laundry.

Busy traffic flow happened in the morning, bathrooms were specially packed, girls were seen walking with their toiletries bag and a bottle of white liquid, white stuff are Dettol mix to wipe on toilet bowl before sitting on it. Each and everyone were busy brushing up at the long stretch of sinks, some took long time cleaning, rubbing & massaging their face, some were like split of lightning zoom in and zoom out, some walk around with white mask on their face, some with white pimples cream dotted on their face, some with mourning face and frizzy hair. (some said woman most prettier time is in the morning, this had proven wrong)

Showers were separated by cubicles, some ‘book’ or reserve the bathroom by letting the shower running with their clothes in it, while they were doing their brushing. During winter time, it was difficult to undress where the cold breeze will some how flow in from nowhere, the fabulous idea was to let the shower running much much more earlier to allow the hot steam warm and fill the whole bathroom for undressing made easy.

The pantry consisted of dining tables, chairs, refrigerator, stove and cooking utensil, all of us were allow to store food stuffs in the refrigerator, but scenario of missing items played repeatedly without catching the ‘rat’, getting annoyed and frustrated, some came out with brilliant idea of labelling ‘POISON !! Do not eat’, ‘Stolen from …(name)’ to deter the act. Exam was the time that everyone had amnesia or temporary lost memory, causing the disgusting worms growing and nested in the fridge and at the he sink.

No hand wash and our laundries were done with washing machine & dryer, I shrunk my cardigan and track bottom 2 sizes smaller with paid dryer, where back home offer free sun for drying and size guarantee.

Watching TV for leisure, you need to group up a few to convince others that majority win, you then can pick your likable channel.

In general, it was not that easy to live under the same roof with difference culture and multi races from Singapore, HongKong, Malaysia, Japan, Brunai, Australia & Thailand, tolerance & compromise are the key words that tie all of us together without hair pulling drama.

Those days in College

Back in ages ago, I am one of the very few Asian in the girls’ college, I was surrounded by the gigantic female Aussie classmate. I muted most of the time with only return smile to acknowledge my agreement or disagreement, maybe I am shy & introvert then, or maybe over shocked on the difference culture, I love to observe the girls around me, they are pretty, young at 16, 17, 18 or so. To them I may look like the malnutrition girl from the Somalia or Ethiopian, small & short.

At the class, some dressed well with make up, perfume, scarf, accessories, they looked professional and 10 years mature, some were just simply simple, faded cardigan top with flare skirt, they don’t even mind their torn pantyhose, and rubber bands were used to tie up the holes to mend the ugliness, so, you can imagine each leg with a few rubber bands sticking out like some kind of seeds hanging from her legs.

The girls smoked before & after class, chewing gum was to freshen their breath, they often disposed by sticking it under the desks, I used to peep under before settling down. Some desks looked like Tangyuan (Glutinous rice) ball sticking on it, with variety of colors and there were hundreds of it.

Unlike the quiet shy Asian, they were actively participated in all the Q & A posted by teacher, when a question raised, 90% of my classmate will raised hands, some stand up with hand waiving in the air to get attention, some calling the teacher, some were closed to shout. But the naughty teacher love to pick Asian L. I can see their disappointment for not being picked.

On top of school bag, they have a makeup bag to keep cosmetics, skin care, cigarettes, lighter, condom, pills and lot more expected & unexpected stuff in it, after school, they zoomed into toilet for freshen up before they adjourned to somewhere else.

Despite the differences in culture, I found them nice, honest, no faking, naïve, playful and possessed happy go lucky characters.

Girl who lost her way

My daughter W was in cross road after getting her SPM (Form 5) result, she doesn’t know what she wants to study to be in line with her future career.

The effort had been made from my side by providing vast info and full support, with the hope to help her gained a clearer picture of what suit her on what she want. She attended numerous talks, spending hours with the lecturers finding out, seek advised from school councillor, exchange view with teachers & headmaster, and finally all my unfortunate friends and relatives were forced to chip in and help.

Since young, W had limited access to TV program, allowing her to watch Disney, Animal planet & Discovery channel, she loved the show of late Steve Irwin – “The Crocodile Hunter", where she developed the passion on animals, then, her ambition was to become Veterinarian.

During her long break waiting for SPM result, she was free to watch any program to kill her 100 days boredom, she landed up watching soap drama related to the legend of Lawyer, she changed her mind to pick Law for study.

With all her intended ambitions made me busy during the 100 days, for her choice of Veterinarian, I had brought her to pet shops, shown her the reality of work, able to tolerate the stink odour, the messiness, the dirt and the not so discipline pets.

Follow by Magistrate court to witness court procedures, she adored seeing lawyers dressed up smartly in black, but, when the session began, she had instant disappointment on the lawyer presentation, soft and monotonous tone, where was the excitement and thrill as shown in the TV ??

I witnessed some ‘katak’ (frog) teenagers jumping around, jump from science to art stream, from A-level to form 6, from medicine to fashion, from accounts to chef. I am kind of worry she will get the deadly virus of katak.

Finally, she picked sixth form to continue her study, allowing her another 2 more years to firm up her ambition. During which, I will help her to explore further on her liking in Psychology, Physiotherapy, Ecologist & more, I presume ?