Short Update from Kampar

Greetings from Kampar!

Huixin is now currently sitting in a cyber cafe located in the new town area of Kampar and typing this post.

Kampar is well, interesting. There are no shopping complexes (unless you consider Tesco to be one) and absolutely no entertainment spots anywhere! Well, except for cyber cafes which are well, an eye opener, really because you'll never see me stepping into one in Miri.

The majority of the people here are Chinese and they speak cantonese which makes it pretty difficult for me because I don't quite speak that lingo but I shall prevail somehow I reckon. Also, the most interesting bit is, the main transport for university students here are, ta-da, BICYCLES! You can see rows and seas of bicycles parked in neat rows everywhere in the uni. I would love to show you the nice campus but I can't exactly upload photos now as I'm in a cyber cafe. Hmmph.

My apartment is pretty close to Tesco so my housemate, Ai Ling & I would walk there sometimes or we would cycle there. Fyi, I bought a bicycle as well to transport me to uni and back and the first few days of riding it was a total nightmare. After the unmentioned thornbush incident back in the lower form, I thought it would be the last time I will ever, ever ride a bike but NOOO, I was once again met with my arch nemesis and had to face my fears again. I'm now nursing multiple bruises on both legs and a healing scratch wound on the left arm. Apart from that, with Ai Ling's constant teaching, I can now ride a bike quite well if I do say so myself. Hurhur.

As for meals, we do some cooking sometimes. Yes, I've sampled some famous Kampar cuisines here and they were definitely not a disappointment. We are also quite familiar with the public transports here; RM 1 to the old town bus terminal, RM 1 to the new town area. Same goes for taxis I think. When I get my much needed connection at home, I shall happily show you the photos. It's damn old school here.

We also went for a day trip to Ipoh on the second day of my arrival here along with Ai Ling, her two older twin brothers and their friend. Ipoh is a bit more modern than Kampar but I would say nothing beats Miri =( Except for the food, of course. Ipoh's food is really good.

Owh, a couple of us went for a daytrip to KL yesterday via KTM and I did my much needed retail therapy at Times Square. Bought quite a number of good buys and came back a much recharged person.

Now I shall talk about my course. There are currently only 16 of us (Yes, 1-6) for this intake so we are the smallest group for the Jan intake now. However, I reckon it's easier to make friends that way. We shall see on Monday when the classes start for real. My schedule for this semester is relatively easy-going with pretty big time gaps in between lectures and tutorials and NO classes on Tuesdays =D However, we have 3 days of night classes so that would be a bummer cycling back at night *gulps. The head of our department is this really nice Indian man who told us that everything for our course is fun, fun, FUN. With such a schedule, I would reckon it is.

Also, I've found a church to attend. However, it's an outreach programme held every Thursday at 7.30 pm at the Church of Praise, a relatively new church here. Through a member from my church in Miri, dad managed to find out about this church and called the pastor. The pastor then called his contact in UTAR who called me and picked Ai Ling and I up for the service just two days back and I liked the preaching. The church is quite small as it is quite new and most of the students were not back in uni then.

Some people were quite intrigued about us being from Sarawak. In fact, most people that we met are. I think most people still believe that Sarawakians are still living in remote spots scattered throughout the town and use leaves to make underwears. A comment that went, ' You guys don't look like Sarawakians' made a question pop out in my head; How are Sarawakians supposed to look like?? You tell me.

I shall try to update soon. For now, please pray that my Streamyx connection can be, erm, connected ASAP because I do feel VERY handicapped without it =( According to the girl, it will take more than two weeks but our friendly neighbour next door ( who has a bunch of housemates who love singing to all types of songs belting through their computer speakers) their connection took more than one and a half month to get it connected. I seriously hope not.

Till the next time I update which is hopefully soon.

P/S: Heading to Miri on the 23rd Jan! =D