My everyday

I found Archie and Monika in the refectory. It was the very first day of uni and having spent the past hour making meaningless small talk in a sea of people, I was feeling very lonely. I remember our first conversation centering around how the situation outside (we were inside, seated in the refectory- I came in for the warmth) was not very conducive for breaking the ice. How for the first time ever, we found it so hard to make friends. 

It was my first real conversation of the day.

We stuck to each other because we did not know anybody else. Later during the day I found Lena, who I knew of because we were mutual friends with Abbas (They played in an orchestra together in Malaysia, and I came to watch). We found Tim in one of the introductory talks, sitting quietly next to us. Typical of the generation, our transition from becoming a few people who knew each other to something more, started with a whatsapp group.

Whatsapp groups are important for keeping up to date with the course, you know, just to make sure you have someone to take the lecture notes for you on those days that you're streaming from home. Its also much less intimidating to show up to things with somebody else, or at least have the knowledge that somewhere in this crowd, you have 4 people who you share a whatsapp group with. Its a support system, and thats especially important when you're an international student. And thats what we were, 5 kids who left home to come to uni, and all from different places too (Lena is from PJ, Im from BD, kira different la tu). 

Somewhere along the way, peer support turned to pure friendship. We became default lunch buddies, we dont even check in with each other about who we're having lunch with anymore, its always just each other. We got to know each others perangai/attitudes : knowing never expect to see some of us in lectures, discovering an unexpectedly loud persona after somebody got a little drunk, and shared the different cultures we were brought up with (Monika is from Poland but shes Vietnamese, Archie is from Kazakstan and Tim is from Slovenia, so its a lottt of diversity). 

Today was our last day of attending lectures (we are all not going to bother coming in for lectures tomorrow #thankyouuclforlivestreamandrecordings) and we closed the term with some good old Malaysian food. Lena and I got super excited about watching their reactions, and we all agreed that the roti pisang from Roti King was bomb.com. We parted our ways, everyone will be flying out of London by this weekend, except for me.  

In our goodbyes, Archie said, 'Thank you guys for being my family here'. It made me tear up on the way home, and yes, thats what we've become.

Friends are family we choose.

Being away from home, I appreciate more than ever the friendships I have here. I am forever grateful that there are already a lot of people that I know from home who are here with me. And I'm here, sitting on my bed, spending my first few moments on winter break being grateful for the friendships I have built here. I thought I'd be a loner on my first day here, but now with my everyday crew, my others friends from the School of Pharmacy, and my friends from pole, I'm building my own little home here. 

To my everyday crew, thank you babes, have safe flights cause Ill be here waiting. See you in the new year. I'll miss youuuuu

Love from London,

Mirr

Apartment 5

In my first two semesters in KYUEM, I was hardly ever in my assigned room. I was always bunking in one chalet or the other, curled into bean bags and living out of a suitcase, but oh boy it was so fun. All my closest friends welcomed me in and it was a hugeee plus point that the chalets were so much nearer to the acad blocks then the apartments were. It took me half the effort, half the time, half the everything to get to my classes; the apartments were literally on the other side of the world and I dreaded it. 

Coming into senior year all my closest friends had finished their time in KY, flew off to pursue their degrees and left me chalet-less. I had no choice but to settle for the apartment the administration had assigned me to ( accommodation is first come first serve during registration day, and my batch was too big to allow for every girl to be moved into a chalet during her senior year). I decorated my room to the absolute max to make up for it, but after a while, my room turned out to be the best apartment everrrr and its all thanks to Aisyah, Kas and Farr, my roommates.

Farr and I were good friends since TKC times. She's kinda loud and a little bit crazy, but whenever Im sick she literally wipes down my body and feeds me and babies me like the softie mat settle she is. Aisyah I met in KY, we have all the same classes (well, I took econs and she took psychology but we both dropped it after AS) and the system kind of forced us to be together all the time. She has a resting bitch face (and she knows it) + she's more of the quiet kind so I used to be pretty intimidated by her (hi Aisyah, its true, please don't use this against me). But guys she's honestly so kind. She's the only one with a fridge and lets us all come into her room to borrow it and to just hang. Like, we just hang out in her room, its like the relaxation hub, and she's never chased any of us out or anything like that, so most of our great roommate moments were in her room (I miss it almost as much as I miss my own room tbh). And then we have Kas, oh Kassy-ku. Kasthuri, well, she's from Kedah and when I first met her she was a scared little indian girl who just came to the city type. She's cute and talkative and friendly, and we just love teaching her things that would make any naive little indian girl blush. But she's like so sporting, and I've witnessed her grow soooo much. 

Occasionally (read : often) people will come to our room to study, or to hang out. Anisah and Fie we're always just popping in and out (and we'd always know when Fie was coming cause she'd SLAM the door on her way in). Towards the end of it, Adriana was in our room pretty much the whole day, except when she needed to sleep or mandi or things like that. She set up a port at our common room table didn't leave if she didn't absolutely have to. All these people helped make the room cheery and fun.

The way our apartment works is that we pretty much do our own stuff, and let each other have the space to do whatever it is that we want to do. We're pretty different people inherently, but we all respect and learn from each other. In our last semester we were pretty much just studying in our own rooms most of the time. Once in a while, after doing a paper or when we get stressed, one person will walk into Aisyahs room and plonk herself on the bed. Slowly another person joins in, and another, and another. Then everyone forgets the fact that we actually are supposed to be studying and the conversation quickly turns to religion or gossip or sex, you know, the usual 20- something topics. When I get to stressed I'll attempt to twerk and we'd google tutorials on how to do that because its harder than it looks guys! Someone would come in and just randomly ask, 'Kas do you know what oral is?' and we'd have to teach her and watch her eyes bulge out of her head and have a good old laugh in the process.

Most of the stories and pictures we have are way too X rated or personal to be shared so publicly, we were in close quarters so we've literally seen and smelt it all. We weren't always seen with each other stuck like glue outside of our room, but within apartment 5, Id like to say we were pretty damn close. We shared our different views and became wiser after every session, assured each other that you did not have to be fair skinned, big boobed or flat stomach to be beautiful. I've said it before and I'll say it again, I don't think I could ever have gotten more blessed in the roommate department. We balanced each other out, and though we weren't very openly affectionate with each other ( in fact there were some very strong love-hate sentimenta sometimes), I love my roommates. 

I hope everyone reading has the pleasure of meeting people who may not have the same viewpoint as you and learn from them. It makes for lovely friendships, you can take my word for it.

Love, 

Mirr

Back to college : Semester 3

I've re-entered college after what was a very well spent summer break. Its week two already into the semester, and its going pretty well.

Some background info, for those who may not know. I go to KYUEM, thats Kolej Yayasan UEM. The UEM doesn't stand for anything, and if it does, I don't know what it means (lol). *Edit* UEM stands for united engineers malaysia, creds to Thevesh and Naim for pointing this out to be me*  Its a boarding college in Tanjung Malim, Perak, everyone here does A levels, and I quite love it here (best academic institution yet in my opinion) 

So anyway, I thought coming back this semester was going to be tough. One huge (and probably the only) reason was because the senior batch has graduated, so I had to say goodbye to a lot of my friends who I grew very attached to over the last two semesters. I made a bunch of girlfriends who met me when I was literally at my lowest, and who literally nurtured me till I got stronger, it was like having 6 tiger loving moms. I moved into their rooms, I invaded their space, I have cried on their shoulders at an average rate of three times a week but most of all, I found a home in every single one of my girls. A little picture tribute to my bbgs;

I cried buckets the day they left, and I still miss them terribly (and keep in contact quite a lot via random meet ups, snapchat and hours on end on FaceTime). However, Im doing better than I thought I would without them. So here's a little thank you, for loving me so much, that even when you leave, I'm still overflowing with happiness.

So semester 3 is going pretty well. This is traditionally known as, the party semester, or, the semester where you apply to university, and even, the semester before shit gets real. University applications haven't started just yet, since AS results aren't out (thats due this coming Tuesday, yikes! Pray for me!!) so its been pretty chill. I decorated my room real nice (might post about it when I've got it completely done). I had fun during induction, getting to know the juniors and all that, and Im back to my KY routines. My, what do I wear tomorrow routine, my finding a way to go back on Friday and almost always end up with Datin routine (LOVE YOU 10), my read a book in the Saad Square habit. 

Gets way too cold in the library for me, and paper towns was so-so if you want my opinion.

One thing I've really noticed about this semester is my attitude. I feel more, into life (?) more positive and just overall happy. I don't wake up wishing for the day to end anymore, I focus in class more and I've learned to cope better with factors that may knock me off balance. I'm also eating, regularly, healthily, and don't feel guilty at all about it. These may be normal things to another person, but my attitude is a personal achievement for me. I think this is optimism, and I really do love what its doing to me.

So, pretty much thats just it. This post should have come earlier but I've been terribly busy, so apologies for that. Im having a great 3rd semester, not extremely dramatic and eventful (though a lot of events), but its just a nice, stable, calm. I hope it remains this way after results day, just got my slip with my password to check online, and omg guys, this feels so real. Was brainstorming back up plans for life with my classmates just now, but InsyaAllah, I hope hope hope I get to do my degree in the UK as originally planned. Good luck to any of you who are getting your results on Tuesday too!

Also, before I forget. I was thinking of maybe taking pics of my ootd's and posting about what I wear to classes and all, since I admittedly put in quite some effort into what I wear. And Ill be completely honest, lazy days, effort days and everything in between. Wanted to know what you think about this, and about me injecting a bit of a fashion element into my blogging, so leave me a comment!

I hope all of you are having an equally good time, doing whatever it is you are doing.

Love,

Mirr

Friends for keeps

Yesterday night, I met up with a bunch of my friends who I've known since early high school.

I made plans to Iftar with Mire and Acai, since its been a while since I properly hanged out with these two. Since these two friends have been dealing with me for so long now, and life has been testing them  quite a lot recently, I decided to treat them to dinner at Nook, Aloft Kuala Lumpur. They gave us a elevated table which was sort of sectioned off from the crowd, which was nice because Mire and I can get extremely embarrassing in public  comfortable around each other. 

So Mire carries around a bunch of plasters. She's very prone to falling down and bruising herself so its basically necessary. As you can see she's pretty proud about it. Acai battled with the coffee machine 3 times. He got pretty fed up, it was real cute to watch lol. We loaded up on the Ramadan buffet and ended up absolutely stuffed.

Background info!

Amirah (I mean Mire) and I went to the same high school (TKC), which was an all girls government boarding school. We got placed in the same dorm in Form 1, and in the same class from Form 2 up till our senior year. But to be fair, I don't think we needed all this setting up. We got close overanalysing books, movies, songs and overall concepts, and eventually got labelled 'pembangkang kelas' for all our crazy questioning. We're almost polar opposites, but she's been by my side through everything and I absolutely love her.

I had a crush on Faisal (read : Acai) in Form 2. We we're both the reserves in our respective debate teams and we met at HKSBP in Kelantan. He was one year older and probably the best looking guy in the whole tournament. A few tournaments and years later, I realised we make better friends than we ever would a couple, and we've been that way ever since. He's the elder brother figure in my life, and I appreciate his harsh advice all the time.

Oh yeah, Im also their favourite 3rd wheel. 

After we were done with dinner, we met up with Jason, Kelvin and Razzaq. We headed to Sakae Sushi since they hadn't eaten yet, and later chilled at Aloft's rooftop pool. It has a great view and they had bean bags out so it was great to just chill and catch up.

Jason, Razzaq, and Kelvin were also friends I met via debate. Here's a pic of us back in 2013, when we all represented Malaysia in Turkey. 

It was a big deal this reunion, because Razzaq left for the UK to do A levels and Jason to Costa Rica to do IB at UWC, and it was the first time I would meet the both of them, together, after a year of being in three different time zones. I've gotten real close to this two, Razzaq and I are eternally shipped (we are not in love, sorry to disappoint!)  and Jason gives the best hugs ever, and it works. It was so so good to see them, I kept taking candid photos of the two (I'm kind of clingy so...)

It was such a great night, being around friends who have stuck around for me for literally years. I went home feeling so loved, and before I went to bed, I thought about how lucky I am. 

Its easy to not count the the blessings you have when you've hit a low, its so easy to forget all that you have. But you should always try, because if you keep focusing on the things you don't have, you miss out on all the gems you have in your hands. Yesterday reminded me that I am blessed with so many people who love me, who have put up with my ever changing life choices and chose to be there for me, literally no matter what. So if you ever need a pick me up, make plans with old friends, and make it a point to think only good things, stop playing with your phone, and just, enjoy the company. It makes such a difference, and I know its common sense, but its something so many of us forget. 

I truly am blessed. Even now Im at Saida's, in my kaftan with smores and Iced Peach Tea. I can only hope to be as much a a friend to all these people as they are to me.

Takeaway of the day :

Give credit to those who love you.

Love, 

Mirr