Alhamdulillah

Truth be told, I'm not perfectly happy with my current life. My (current-gen) consoles are broken, none of my good friends are around me, my favourite cat isn't with with me and worst of all, my most beloved person is far away from me. I can't even call her anytime I want. And working life...well, lets just say is nowhere near as fun and easy as my days as a student. The list of cons goes on and on.

But hey, look at the bright side. Reports indicate that as of January, more than 10 000 workers got laid off because of the economic downturn. I've friends who are local/overseas graduates who are desperately looking for a job to pay their loan whereas I've already secured a job well over 5 years ago with not single cent to pay nobody. I can't ask for anything better than that now can I. Sure, it isn't perfect but the pros outweighs the cons by a large margin. God has definitely given what is best for me, Alhamdulillah.

Alhamdulillah performed by Too Phat and Yassin. Alhamdulillah literally translates as 'praises be to God (Allah)', or something like 'Praise the Lord'. I'm not a big fan of hip-hop/rap music, but Alhamdulillah won me over. Great song.

Welcome Home

As I'd mentioned in the previous post, I managed to get myself a place to stay in Tioman. It isn't much of a house. Well, it isnt't even a house to begin with; getting a house in Tioman is borderline impossible. The place I'm renting in now is a small chalet. When I say small, I really mean small. I left the cables for my camera in the room (silly me) so I couldn't put the pictures here, but here's a schematic of the room.
It's about as big as 6-tatami room, probably even smaller. The small space beside the bed is just enough one person to perform the prayers. By the way, the bed takes up about 60% of the space. There's no kitchen so I have to eat out every day. Good thing there are restaurants nearby. Grocery stores, and most importantly, the school where I'm working at are also within walking distance.

The room is equipped with air-con and water heater, but I agreed not to use it, unless I want to be paying more than RM250/month. I'm not exactly thrilled with my new home, but I am thankful to have one. At least I won't be obliged to stay in the warden's room anymore, so at this point, I really can't afford to be picky.

Welcome Home, performed by Metallica. Also known as sanitarium. This is metallica in their prime.

I Get By

I have a lot to write about the 5 day experience living on that patch of land called Tioman, but instead of writing a lengthy wall of texts, which could be unpleasant for both me and you, I present you with a very concise summary of the experience, in the form of the following chart :

Click chart for a larger version

Note: my normal psyche level is at 75

(1) The boat got stranded because the sea level wasn't high enough. Stuck on the boat for approximately 2 hours, 55 minutes and 22.66 seconds. Boring.

(2) Tioman was definitely a beautiful place. First impression: impressed!

(3) The warden's room I was given to live in looks like a dilapidated room that has been left unattended for 2 whole decades.

(4) The toilet. Look at the scale. I'll leave the rest to your imagination.

(5) Started work immediately. The working environment is relaxing and the colleagues are a real nice bunch. I figure I could get along well.

(6) First staff meeting. TOV, ETR, WTH?? Was also given the position of panitia and a handful of paperwork to do. I was so totally lost there...

(7) Learning the ways, thanks to the guide from the senior teachers.

(8) I got a place to stay! Well, a room to be exact. It's a small chalet not too far from the ocean. Rent: RM250/month

(9) Started moving in most of my stuff from school. It was then when I realized how truly small the room is.

(10) Made friends with a few people who were also pretty new to town. We went fishing. I decided to pick up fishing as well soon.

(11) Went around town. Got to know various individuals. Many people already knew me as 'the new teacher'. They really made me feel welcomed.

(12) A colleague showed me around town on a bike. Free tour is always appreciated.

(13) The marine reserve has got to be some of the nicest waters I've seen in my lifetime.

(14) The plan was to go swimming, but I caught a terrible fever. Really bad fever.

And I returned home the following morning. It wasn't a terrible experience, but it was by no means a truly great one either. Oh well, I can get by...

* I Get By, by Honest Bob and the Factory-to-Dealer Incentives, is song with a nice tune but really weird lyrics. 3 out of 5 stars.

Should I Stay or Should I Go: part deux

The real answer for the question is I should have just stayed. Upon arriving at Mersing yesterday, the Jabatan Laut announced that the sea was way to dangerous for them to allow boats to set sail. They've put out a notice that boats will officially start operating again on the 19th. Emphasis on 'officially'. If boat companies think they can go to Tioman no problem, they're free to go but the passengers won't be covered by insurance if anything were to happen.

There were quite a few teachers who were stranded as I am, including my Pengetua...haha. So he told me to call him back on Thursday, and if everything's A-OK, we'll finally be leaving for Tioman on Friday. So yeah, not even a day into the job and I already got a few days of paid holiday (hopefully).

And while I'm at it, here are a few things thats been going around my head:

• met a few teachers from the school yesterday and it would seem I'm the only one from my age group.
  
• the other teachers are adult adults and they talk adult-ish stuff. The only thing I can talk objectively, without disagreeing with other people, is video games.
• I'll be the only English teacher in school, which means it's automatically confirmed that I'll become the panitia too.
• the closest person from IPBA to me, location-wise, would be The Seng in Johor, and I'm supposed to be in Pahang!
• the island is only 12km wide! I wanna try walking along the shores until I circle the whole island one day.
• the people there looks not too different from the dudes you see in Hawaii !(from movies, never been there meself)
  
• there were more things i thought about yesterday which I'd forgotten today
• and then some.
• OK, that's probably it.
• I really hate it when you know that you know something, but you just can't recall it.
• probably should just hit publish and be done with it...
  

word

[edit] holiday continues for a few more days. If all goes well, I'll be leaving on Sunday morning.

Should I Stay or Should I Go

...is actually a rather pointless question now. In a matter of hours, I'll be leaving home to Rompin, where I will meet up a man who I must now call Mr. Principal, and follow him to Mersing, where we will catch a ride on a boat, and hopefully get to Tioman without any trouble.

That's right. I will be officially cast away to an island.

Details are still quite sketchy on the area, but I do know that the school I'll be serving in is, fortunately, situated in the central hub of the island - a town called Tekek. The school is called...SMK Tekek. Genius!

Now, I can't really be sure whether I'll have internet access there. I'll definitely update the blog as per usual if that were the case. But just in case I don't, this will probably the last entry that I will post for a pretty long while....

Actually, maybe until Chinese New Year, now that I think of it... ahaha

Well, I'll just make a point to write all about the place the second I have the chance to. So there. Done.



*Should I Stay or Should I Go, performed by The Clash. A light and entertaining rock song that I knew thanks to Rock Band. Very easy on the ears. I give it a 4 stars worth of love