Just Cause We're Young, Please Don't Think We're Dumb.

This is where we had the survey last weekend, the PPR Seri Semarak. It was just 2 km away from my house, but it felt like I was stepping into a different world. Will get pictures of us in action at the survey from my senior and post some up later. =)

Just like the weekend before, we were lucky to have people help us organize the survey. While in Kampung Medan we had people from the mamak stall help us, here we have the manager of an old folks' home lending us the void deck (picture above) as our centre for conducting the survey. It's amazing that these people just so willingly lent us a helping hand and provided us with chairs and tables and stuff so that we would be comfortable. Small details like that can definitely make a lot of difference.

This place is definitely a step up from the Kampung Medan. The environment was better, and it doesn't feel as claustrophobic this time around.

In the span of three hours, I had to sit down with 3 people and read out each question to them and explain what some questions mean. Mind you, we had close to 90 questions, and I had to read ONE BY ONE to all of them.

Imagine reading out questions like this in Malay three times over:

"Saya percaya bahawa terdapat pernguatkuasaan undang-undang dan peraturan yang secukupnya untuk memastikan kebolehpercayaan pembekal/penjual internet"

And explaining to them what this mean, when they don't have a single clue on how the internet works.

(Oh, by the way, the English version of the question is: "I believe there is adequate enforcement of law and regulation to ensure the credibility of the Internet providers/sellers")

What I remember most was doing the survey with this one uncle, who was disabled and was walking with crutches, told me that in his household, there are 8 people and he's the only one working. He's earning around RM1,000 and he has to support his wife, kids and father-in-law.

He's interested in learning about computers and laptops, but he can't afford and he's illiterate. But he signed up his children for computer training and told me that he thinks that having a computer and internet would be very useful.

Being there, you can't help but just feel so sad for these people who are not exposed to these things that we take for granted simply because they can't afford them.

And it pissed me off even further when I read the Budget 2011 highlights and found out that they're allocating RM5 BILLION to build a 100-storey tower that's supposed to be the tallest in Malaysia.

DUDE, WE ALREADY HAVE THE BLOODY PETRONAS TOWERS.

NOT ONE, BUT TWO TOWERS OKAY!!!! (Hehe, Two Towers. Macam Lord of the Rings pulak. Lol.)

I seriously do not see the point of building another skyscraper. And RM5b = RM 50m per floor. WHY?????????????

Even if one-fifth of the money was channelled into investing in training the poor in ICT/reduce the cost of owning a computer for the poor, their quality of life would be so much better and eventually they will be able to find better jobs. It's definitely a better long-term investment.

Se-too-peed people at the top of the pyramid.

I bet they've never seen first-hand how it's like for this people, living on a meagre salary in an area where the cost of living seem to be increasing day by day.

It makes me so angry!!!!!!! GAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

And then today I read THIS article on how the Government should not be ignoring the views of the young, and I think the whole article absolutely defines the mentality of my generations. This paragraph in particular I can totally relate to:

"Politics for politics sake does not interest them, but politics as a means to achieve something, usually idealistic, or to champion a cause is okay."

Politics for the sake of politics is so passe.

If I were to vote, I want to know that this person I'm voting for would be championing a cause that would benefit the society as a whole.

And as much as I hate politics, I know that it is inevitable for me to sooner or later use the voting power that I have to help change this country.

Like the title post states, just cause we're young, please don't think we're dumb.

Apologies. And a new experience.

I'm so so so so so sorry for abandoning the blog. Again.

Haih.

I haven't found a job yet, but the RA work in Monash has been keeping me pretty occupied.

And the stupid internet connection in my house is so bloody annoying that I get so fed-up everytime I try to blog.

I swear that once UniFi is available in my area I will go and get it for the house and pay for it myself rather than continue using this stupid WiMax with its continuous PMSes.

Oh yes WiMax modem. I'm talking to you. I'll baling you down into the swimming pool once we get a better internet connection.

Oh, last weekend, my lecturers, my fellow RAs and I (there were 8 of us) went to gather data on our research on the usage of mobile phones, computers and internet in the rural-urban area.

We went to this area called Kampung Medan near Old Klang Road, which was just like 5 minutes away from the university.

But it was definitely a different world from the comfortable and safe environment that we have been exposed to in Sunway (and at home).

This area was the scene of the 2001 Kampung Medan clash between the Malays and Indians, and an area where gang fights can happen at anytime simply because they don't have anything better to do.

And it's only 20 minutes away from KL.

When we were in the lift of one of the apartment buildings heading towards our "Survey Centre" (which was basically just the corridor near the lifts on one of the floors of the flats), I almost vomited (having a strong gag reflex is definitely a disadvantage in this situation) because the stench of garbage lingers in the lift. The 2-minute ride up to the 5th floor felt like forever because of the overbearing stench. And to think, these people have no choice but to bear with the smell every single day. It made me so sad.

Once we got up to our survey centre, it was just as bad. The corridor was not well-lit and a bit dingy, that even on a bright Saturday morning (we were there by 9 AM), the place looked like it was 6 PM on a gloomy day. It was definitely a bit depressing for me cause I love sunlight and bright places.

We got these people to participate in the survey by giving out electric kettles to them as a gift for completing the surveys. And in the 4+ hours we were there, we managed to get 80 participants for the survey and we were definitely satisfied.

It's amazing that these people willingly sat through all 80 questions of the survey just to get a free electric kettle. I don't think I would have. But then, what I take for granted might be a necessity to these people.

Like there was this lady who I did the survey with, and she only earns RM600 a month and her husband earns RM1,000 a month and they have three kids at home, 2 of which are in primary school. It's crazy that they only have that amount of money per month to survive in KL, especially with the rising food prices.

From what we gather, a majority of these people are aware of the importance of computers and internet, but it's unfortunate for them that these things are too expensive for them to afford, and so they're losing out on the benefits of having/owning a computer and an internet connection.

It was definitely an eye-opener for all of us. Like my lecturer was telling us over lunch after the survey, "You can look at the cold data from the questionnaires and make conclusions based on the data, but unless you're down on the field, seeing what they see everyday, you can't really see what's happening." And we were quite lucky this time around because there were people who helped us organise the survey by giving us chairs and tables from their mamak stalls to set up at our centre so that everything can run smoothly and comfortably.

I actually feel a bit apprehensive to go to these sort of places again, but we still have more data to collect and I know that this experience will make me better appreciate the luxuries in life that I have taken for granted. I guess this is sort of my Peace Corps experience la. Lol.

Anyways, the boyfriend picked me up from Monash cause he wanted to study for his upcoming ACCA exams at the Monash library, so basically it was a win-win situation la for us. He got to study without any distraction, I got a ride home. Lol.

Anyways, on the ride home, we sort of had this discussion about scholarships. I personally think that some people should not get a scholarship just because they have good grades because I know some people with scholarships can actually afford to pay the university fees.

And it also pisses me off that some people see scholarships only as a ticket to go overseas (case in point: My boyfriend. I think it was a blessing in disguise that he didn't get to go overseas on his old scholarship. Lol.) and that once they earn the scholarship, they slack off and play hard. So instead of maintaining good grades and hence justifying why they received the scholarships in the first place, these people get sucky results and splurge most of their scholarship money (and the money from their parents too) on having fun.

Don't get me wrong. Some of the scholars definitely deserve their scholarships cause they work really hard for it and hence should be awarded, but these rotten few who take scholarships for granted really annoy me.

I mean, it's the taxpayers money. Some of the taxpayers are hard-working, poor people who can't afford to buy some of the stuff that these scholars own, so it's a bit ironic isn't it that these poor people are paying for the rich people's education?

Granted, I might be a bit bitter because my results were never good enough during my schooling years (not for lack of studying) to earn a scholarship, but I have worked so hard during my degree to make my parents know that their hard-earned money did not go to waste. I still had fun, but not for one second did I take my education money for granted.

The boyfriend and I both agree that the priority for scholarships should be given to those from rural areas. And that scholarships should not be awarded solely based on academic results.

Some people from the rural areas might not have gotten straight A1's because their environment is not conducive for studying. They might have to be the caretaker to their smaller siblings when their parents are working, hence affecting their study time and overall performance. But the government should give them chances, even when they only have 7 or 8 A's, instead of awarding a city kid who scored 10 A1's because they went for extra tuition and was in a boarding school with a conducive studying environment.

Oh, one more thing that pisses me off with some scholars who are overseas is their "Stick-to-their-kind" attitude. To me, one of the beauty of studying overseas is learning the local culture, lingo and basking in the new experiences that being in a new environment might give.

But it's quite sad that some people, once they are overseas, seem happier to stick their kind. In fact, these people sometimes look down on those people who dare to step out of their comfort zones and take risks and try new things and meet new people who aren't Malaysians.

What is the freaking point when you proudly say you have gone to study in UK/US/Australia for God-knows how many years and yet you can't even string one perfect sentence when speaking in English?

I'm not saying that these people have to come back with accents, but dear God, is it so difficult to polish up on your speaking English while you are living in an English-speaking nation?

It makes me, who has never had the chance to (and looking at it now, probably never will) study overseas be a bit confounded. I mean, have they never heard of the term SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITY?

Oh yes. I'm a bit pissed. I grew up here in Malaysia, got my degree in Malaysia and yet I speak better English than this people. What the hell.

But then I guess I can't fully blame them cause sometimes it boils down to the environment where you were brought up in.

I am so glad that my parents actually became friends with not just Malaysians during their time in the UK. In fact, during our trip, we stayed with my dad's Indian friends (Indians from India, not Malaysia) and went to visit one of my dad's close friend, an Irish man who got married to a Geordie. My parents were there and back when we were in the UK we went to their house every Christmas, and I can't see many scholars (Malays, especially) doing that nowadays.

Us, with Uncle Duncan and family, 2010.

Aunty Donna, Amy, myself and Anis, 1992.

I'm glad that my parents were open-minded enough to step out of their comfort zone and make friends with these people, and that they taught us that it was okay to step out of our comfort zones once in a while.

Anyhow, back to the scholarship issue, it sucks that the government are mainly giving out scholarships for the so-called "Professional" courses, i.e Medicine, Law, Engineering, Business.

They should actually look into giving out scholarships for other vocational courses because not everyone has the brain to become engineers and doctors. Plus, apparently even engineers now are finding it difficult to get jobs.

Some people are more practical-based rather than theory-based. Just because they aren't book-smart, it doesn't mean that they're stupid and don't deserve to get a scholarship. I think giving scholarships in courses like hospitality is a pretty good idea because it's an all-rounder course where you learn basic financial accounting, languages and whatnots and you actually apply everything that you learn. Which is more than I can say about some of the things that I had to learn during my degree (Accounting Theory, anyone?).

But it's so difficult for us to change the mentality of the people and basically if you don't have a scholarship for a professional course, it's either you're too stupid or you're a freaking rich kid.

Bottom line: No scholarship, no good.

Gah.

I hate our Education system and the people's third-world mentality. Thank God I'm done with my degree.

Okay, enough rants. I'm tiring my brain and tiring the people who might be reading this. Lol.

Love loads!

PS: I do feel guilty for the length of the post, but I'm not sorry. I needed to vent out. As usual. Where else can I make myself heard (other than in my boyfriend's car when we were discussing this, teehee)?

Work, work, work. =)

I'm writing this post while I'm working. LOL.

I just got a pay raise for my RA work (which I've continued after the exams) last week and I'm so happy!!! I can't tell you how much though, but some people already know how much I'm getting (yes, I know you guys think it's unfair. Sorry!). Lol.

What happened was last week I went to my lecturer, and she asked me "How much are you getting paid?" And when i told her she was like "Oh, we're paying this person this and this, so you should be getting that much too."

So yes, I AM SO THRILLED because now I'm getting more than last time, even though the work load is about the same. But I've been a bit busy this past week because I had to help out with the notes and exercises for the workshop.

Oh apparently it is now very obvious to people when I'm under stress or angry. Like yesterday, I was a bit stressed because I was trying to finish off the notes and pack the notes into files and whatnot. And then I saw my senior while I was running everywhere and he looked at me and said "Your forehead gets red when you're stressed, doesn't it? Don't stress la, you'll do fine." And then he laughed and pat my back. Stupid strawberry mark on the forehead. -___-

Today and tomorrow, my job is to facilitate my lecturer for a workshop that she's conducting. I have to be here at 8 in the morning and go back around 6 (which is a bit tiring), but I'm getting free breakfast, free mid-morning snacks, free lunch and free tea break for the next two days and I'm getting paid to just sit and listen to the lecture (which I have gone through in my second year, lol).

When I told Liyana about the pay raise and the workshop, she was a bit envious because she said that I was "gonna be paid to become smarter." Which is true, I guess. Hahaha.

But I have to start finding a permanent job, and I am so not looking forward to that right now because I still do not know what I want to do in the long run. Haih.

Oh yeah. Wani is so happy about our upcoming UK trip that everyday she'll come to me and say "Kakya, 19 more days" or how many more days to our UK trip, so I know for a fact that we'll be leaving for UK in 16 days from today. LOL.

Oh yeah, while we're on the subjects of my siblings, Zara came up to me yesterday so excitedly and said "Kakya, for my Mini Sukan at school I'm gonna be picking up the trash!!!"

And I'm like, "Ermmmmmmmmm, that's good?"

Picking up trash. And she's excited. Hmmm. Oh well.

Okiedokes. Better get back to listening now. Later!

Post 330.

At the dinner table yesterday my siblings and I were randomly taking about Glee and we were talking about the songs that they sing, like this one:

And then Anis said something to the younger siblings that was like a total stab to my heart:

Kakya and I are so old that we actually know the original Thong Song. And we used to watch the video on MTV.

OUCH.

It hurtsssssss.

It's just beginning to sink in that I'm no longer 21, and Anis uttering those lines was like putting a nail on the coffin. -______-

Thanks so much Anis.

But seriously, who watches MTV anymore? Youtube's so much better. Lol.

Oh, by the way, I was looking up some journals about urban poverty in Malaysia and how it has affected the crime rate in Malaysia and whether there are data on the number of urban poor in Malaysia based on the races. I couldn't find the race-based urban poor data even though I spent the better half of three days searching for them. Haih.

BUT, I did find one journal article that I find somewhat....interesting.

I was reading through a journal article and then the first thing I saw was this:


Kuala LUMPA?

ARE YOU FREAKIN' SERIOUS?

Once I saw that I knew it was gonna be irritated by the article.

Sad to say, I was right.

I mean, the contents were good, but the grammatical and spelling errors made me cringe.

I mean, in some of the sentences there weren't even any punctuation marks. Seriously. -_-

I felt like I was re-doing my SPM and IELTS exam where they give a sentence/paragraph and you're supposed to see where the punctuation marks go or which words were spelt wrongly. It's like the Spell-Check on Microsoft Word was turned off.

Haih. I don't want to be so condascending, but when you're an academician, shouldn't you at least be concerned with where your punctuation marks are?

I mean, let me give a simple example that Wani always use to teach Zara on the importance of using punctuation marks.

See, without the right punctuation marks, the sentence "Let's eat, Grandma!" will become:

"Let's eat Grandma!!!!"

So yes, I think punctuation marks are important in scholarly journals.

But maybe not so much in text messages. Lol.

My statement.

When I went to see Ms Adlina, I basically told her that I DID NOT like auditing, I'm NOT planning on going back for auditing and I am so thankful that I decided to do the internship instead of going into auditing permanently.

So she was listening to me babble on about the gripes of being an auditor (she was so friendly I couldn't help but start babbling my mouth off. Lol!) and she was saying that I should put a positive spin to the Internship Experience thing that she wanted me to do and talked about how doing the internship exposed me to all these things and made me think of other career options that I might go into once I graduated.

So this is what I've come up with that might be put up on the School of Business' Website:

Undertaking the internship program at BDO Binder has definitely been an eye-opening experience. The program has exposed me to the multi-faceted world of auditing and the working life in general, and it has also led me to ponder on the possible career paths that I might have once I leave Monash University. It has also given me the opportunity to incorporate what was taught in class into the tasks given. Overall, being an intern has been an enriching experience as it forced me to step out of my comfort zone as a student and to look at the world in a different light.

I never realised that I had it in me to come up with such a paragraph. I am so proud of myself. Lol.

And I'm not exactly lying in the paragraph, it's just that I decided to omit some facts.

That's business for you. Lol.

Oh, they might edit the paragraph to make it even more bombastic, so this paragraph might be the final product on the School's website.

I know nobody goes to the school website, but still it will be SO WEIRD having my name and this paragraph there.

Lol.

Monday blues. NOT. =)

WEEK 4 IN MONASH ALREADY.

OMG. Time flew so fast. =/

Oh, today was a funny day in class and at work.

And now I realised now why I absolutely adore my lecturer for this semester. it's because he's so genuine.

Like last week, we're learning VBA for Microsoft Excel. Basically we'll be learning how to do programming with codes like this:


(Yeah, as much as it scares me, I can actually understand that. Psycho. Lol.)

So anyways, like I was saying, while we were learning about how to go about using the VBA for our programming, my lecturer said that we won't be doing stuff that are too complicated simply because (and I quote): "I don't know how to do it".

It's nice when the lecturer admits that they don't know stuff. Makes them more human.

Plus, if something's too hard for the lecturer means it's too hard for us students, right? Hehehe.

And in lecture this morning, he was saying something along the lines of "Sometimes people like to overthink when there's always an easy solution to a problem."

How true.

Oh, and at work today, my senior, John was telling me about a conversation he had with our supervisor, Dr. Santha (who has taught me a couple of time these past three years). [We also have another supervisor, Prof Mahendhiran, who used to teach me too].

So anyways, John was telling Dr. Santha that I'm quite efficient at the work that he has given me these past two weeks. He also told Dr. Santha that he was having problems in doing prediction and forecasting for some data. And then Dr. Santha told him "Alia's one of our best students. Ask for her assistance. I'm sure she'll figure something out" or something along that line la.

OMG. Total hidung kembang moment for a while okay that my lecturer has so much faith in me. I was just grinning like an idiot for like two minutes.

And then when John gave me the data to work on, I realised that I had to look at my last year's notes, which just so happen to be at home, so I basically didn't have any references to help me manipulate the data.

Oh yeah. Not so brilliant now are you, Alia?

But I'm still happy with the fact that I get along with most of my lecturers and that they remember me. Makes my studying environment so much more conducive.

What a nice way to start a week, knowing that people think positively of you. =)

Run away. Run far, far away.

I got this email from my Internship Coordinator, Ms Adlina, sometime earlier this week:

Hi Alia,

It’s Ms Adlina here, from the Internship and Volunteerism Program, how are you doing? I would like to invite you to share with us your experience of your internship with BDO Binder which we would like to publish in our School website. Basically, it’s just to write a very brief description –in your own words - on how your internship helped/assisted/added value to your learning at Monash University. We also want to take a snapshot photo of you.

I was absolutely petrified because:

a) I don't think I have anything nice to say about my internship other than maybe something along the lines of "Doing an internship in BDO Binder or any other audit firm is highly recommended for students before they decide to pursue auditing in the long-term as they would be able to gain first-hand experience on the torture of being an auditor."

When I told Liyana about the email, she told me "You, me and Sham should go see Ms. Adlina and bombard her with reasons on why we don't have any positive experience in BDO".

I totally agree with her plan because frankly I don't think being at BDO taught me anything that's worth remembering other than that should I have my own company or become CFO/CEO /some other Senior Management position of some company (oh yes, I dream big. And I set these ridiculous benchmarks for myself. Lol.), I'll make sure that whenever a transaction is done, proper documentation would be there and proper authorisation is given so that it'll make my life easier and the auditor's life easier.

Oh, BDO also taught me that Monash is the place where I belong and that I was right when I said auditing's not for me.

b) I don't want my face to be on the school's website. I don't look good in pictures. -_-

So yes, I am seriously considering politely declining Ms Adlina's offer of being on the school website.

Hello March. It's a pleasure to meet you. =)

Today was the first day back to uni. =)

And I didn't know just how much I've missed being in Monash until I parked my car in the parking lot and stepped into the uni compound.

It amazed me how alien, yet familiar, the place felt like.

And it's amazing that I was actually really EXCITED to go back to classes.

But then again, after doing auditing, doing anything else definitely feels more exciting. Lol.

So anyways, went for my first class for the ONLY unit I'm taking this sem (it's still so weird saying that!) and when I went into the class, saw that I knew half of the people in the class, so it was like a mini-reunion for us. So happy to know that there are some people that I can go to for help should I not understand the assignment. Lol.

And when our lecturer (who I have known since I was in my first year back in '07) started talking about probabilities and optimum value in decision making and what functions to use in Excel, I seriously felt that in that one hour of lecture, I've used more of my brain capacity than when I was doing auditing for three months.

Yeah, doing Econometrics is challenging and can sometimes be a pain in the ass, and I'm pretty sure I'll start complaining soon enough, but weird person that I am, I seriously prefer doing this to auditing for the simple reason that as difficult as this unit is going to be, IT MAKES SENSE TO ME.

So yeah, totally not missing auditing.

Anyways, after my class, I went to see another lecturer of mine (who so happens to be the Deputy Head of School) to ask him about the possibility of being a Research Assistant since I have so much free time this sem.

So I think there's a BIG possibility that I'll soon be a part-time Research Assistant if nothing goes wrong.

Best part of the work? I'll only be working 20 hours a week! =D

AND I have a feeling the pay's gonna be more than my 50-hour week in BDO.

AND there's a possibility that I might be able to go for trips to rural areas to collect data by interviewing people. Which would so help my interaction skills since I suck at interacting with strangers. Lol.

This semester looks like it's starting on a bright note. Hopefully it'll stay that way. =)

Oh, on a totally different note, and just cause I can (and cause I like this picture and less people will see it here as compared to me putting it up on fb. Lol.):


This pic was taken during our trip down to PD where I totally surprised him with my knowledge of PD. Yep, those random trips I've taken down to PD has really made me an expert on the places to go to when you're in PD!


I have gone down to PD so many times that I can tell you how much the toll would cost if you took the highway.

Yes, it is scary.

And I am definitely available as a tour guide for anyone who wants to go down to PD. I charge by the hour, thank you very much. Lol.

PS: I've finally managed to import the old blog to this new one. I'm sooo happy cause the posts are all here now!!!! =D

Alia's random post number God-knows-what.

Like I mentioned in the previous post, these are the pictures of my siblings performing at my grandparents' 50th anniversary. Zara looked so adorable. And mischievous.

Other pictures from the night. Lol.

Wanna talk about random? This is VERY random. I was cleaning up my car and managed to salvage all these receipts from parking at the office. Yes, it's RM6 a day. And I have the majority of the receipts from the last 6 weeks at the office. It's annoying how around 20% of my measly salary went to paying for parking. Bloody hell.

Yep, I can be a bit bitter when it comes to work-related stuff. Lol.

Oh, by the way, I am SO ADDICTED TO GLEE. God, it's so addictive. I love the songs that they sing on the show.

One of the songs I love the most from the series is this one:



I seriously had tears watching this part of the episode.

Oh yes. I'm a total Gleek. So sue me. Lol.

Musings.

I had soooo much fun over the weekend.

Went for the "Da Vinci - The Genius" exhibition at the Pusat Sains Negara with Natcho and Yana and I was so thoroughly amazed by how much this one man had done in his lifetime. They didn't bring in any of his arts, but there was one section of the exhibition that was dedicated to just the Mona Lisa. The number of inventions that this man made in his lifetime is astounding. He basically thought up the original parachute, the prototype of the modern car and helicopters, made war machines, set the foundations for drawing the human body and lots of other stuff.

It's amazing how one man can think of all this things. Makes me feel that we who live in this modern world are so inadequate compared to him. Yes, i am in awe. And I realised that I actually like going to museum to look at all these exhibitions. Some of them can be quite interesting. I might start making more trips to museums in the future. LOL.

After that, we went for karaoke/lunch at Red Box Plus in Pavilion. Felt like it wasn't such a bad deal to spend around RM32 per person since we haven't seen each other in ages and we got to use the room for close to three hours and we got buffet lunch at that. Food was so-so, but we had sooooooooooo much fun singing.

I felt a bit greedy though. I wanted to sing on all the songs. So basically my routine was sing one verse, eat one bite, continue singing. Repeat till end of song.

Took me forever to finish off my food! Tu la. Tamak lagi. Padan muka, Alia.

But I realise that I really love singing, but only with people that I'm comfortable enough with. So if I've started melalak-ing in front of you, whoever you may be, that means I'm comfortable enough with you. LOL.

OH, by the way, Liyana Samlan and I (I really have to start giving nicknames to my friends. It's hard when I have two really close friends by the name of Liyana!) went to Great Eastern Mall the other day for dinner after work, where she took me to Penang Village.

OMG. I absolutely FELL IN LOVE with the place.

The decor is so minimalist and it looks sooooooo pretty. The view pun quite nice. And the food is around RM10 to RM15 per dish, which is a bit pricey, but okay la for that sort of setting.

And they have the best bandung cincau cause it's so pink, but it's not sweet. Just the way I like it. =)

Will definitely tarik someone to go with me there one day. I don't care who. Lol.

Oh yeah. Let’s talk a bit about work.

I’m into Week 7 now, and I have 4 more weeks to go!!!! Omg. I can’t wait for the internship to end.

But actually right, halfway through it now, i realise that auditing might not be so bad after all. But I’m still not sure whether I want to do it as a profession later on. My mind’s still leaning towards the “DO NOT BECOME AN AUDITOR” thoughts, though. Lol.

The other day I was telling Sham that I didn’t want to be an auditor after I graduate from Monash.

And then he said something that completely surprised me and made me feel so much better.

He told me that his senior was impressed with the working paper that my senior and I have done for our interim audit cause ours looked neat and organized and thick. Yep. Not the most environmentally-friendly, but definitely hardworking twosome. Lol.

And somehow that made me feel sooooo much better, knowing that there are people who are impressed with the work that my senior and I have done. =)

Oh, and I seriously feel like I’m being spoilt by my senior cause she never lets me go home past 6.30 pm. There was one day when I had to help her and had to stay in the office until 7.30, and she was asking me “Are you sure you can stay? You don’t mind?”

So yeah, while some of the other interns sometimes only get to go back at like 8 or 9 or 10 plus, I’m usually gone by 7.45 the latest. And usually when I’m in the office, she even lets me go back at 5.30 sharp. LOL.

But I guess it also helps that I am competent when it comes to using Microsoft Excel, cause usually when she gives me a task, I can finish it off by the end of the day. Hence why sometimes I still have time to go on fb while in the office. Lol.

And she doesn’t treat me like I’m incompetent and she helps me when I don’t understand the work I’m doing. Now that I think about it, this is the second senior that I’ve had that’s been helpful. Yeah, I do feel lucky right now cause some of the interns got scary seniors that expects the intern to know everything.

So yeah, nice seniors make going to work a little bit better. Haha.

But I am so ready to go back to being a student. Joining the workforce permanently can wait for another few months. I’m in no hurry.

OH, but talking about going back to becoming a student, I can only take ONE unit next semester. 4 hours of classes out of a possible 13, so yes, I will be VERY free next semester.

And Liyana came up with the most brilliant idea.

She suggested that I try asking our Econometrics lecturer whether it's possible for me to work as a research assistant.

And I'm actually seriously thinking about it, you know.

I mean, rather than me going to Monash and wasting my time doing nothing, I might as well use this opportunity to see whether I want to workin the Econometrics field or the accounting field after I graduate.

So yeah. We'll see how things go.

Funny how I might end up doing something totally different than what I'm currently doing at work.

Okiedokes. Need to get back to work. LOL.

Using my lunch hour to write this post. Haha.